The Virtual Journey
by Vendicor
Summary: Normal. That's kind of how life is supposed to go is it not? You wake up, go to school, do your work, live your life how you want and so on. Simple as that. Well, imagine my surprise when I go to a school academy in France and find that my life turns into anything but normal than what I wanted. But I'm not complaining.
1. 1 Prologue

Another day, another time for school. That's how it's always been when growing up and today is no different. My name is Alex and I am currently attending school overseas at a fairly prestigious place, Kadic Academy. It's a boarding school in France and my parents thought it'd be a good idea for me to get a different setting in my life, or to try and get me a little outgoing, and decided to send me off to this 'wonderful' school till I graduate.

I'm being sarcastic about the wonderful part. I would have preferred to say home but my family was pretty set on me going. It's not something I'm overly fond of but I'm doing what I can. The classes are alright, not too bad, I do pretty well in them enough that I'm not stressing out over anything, and the teachers themselves are alright people.

Well, except maybe one.

"Let's go you maggots! Hustle it up!" Enter Jim. He's our gym teacher basically and the guy is pretty… mmmm eccentric in his teaching means and boisterous attitude. He seems like an alright guy but its hard to think of him in a positive light when he's the one that has you feeling tired and like crap all the time in the form of a ton of exercise. Currently, I am in gym right now running the track field along with the rest of my classmates. I'm a fairly fit guy in my own spare time but that's always been my thing to do on my own terms. Having it told me to do by someone else just doesn't feel as right. Some students are seriously out of shape as they breathe heavily while they try to continue to jog. Some of them immediately sprinted right out of the gate so to say and easily became winded because of it but I decided to keep a small brisk pace the whole way. It's enough that Jim won't yell at me to keep moving and so I'm not feeling like I'm going to die, as some people look like they are going to be. I see a couple students with yellow hair breathing heavily as I pass them and look pretty tired from what I can tell from the hunched over states and sweaty demeanors. "Della Robbia! Belpois! C'mon move it! You're a lap behind everyone else!" Jim calls out to them if I'm guessing.

"Oh man!" I hear a loud whiny voice speak up from behind me, which confirms it. I can't help but smirk as I jog before I pass by Jim and come to a stop. If I kept track correctly, I should be done by now.

I'm right as I watch our couch hit his stopwatch and looks at the time. "Ohhh, nice time. Not the absolute best but you're getting there."

"Thank you, sir." I simply reply and walk off the track and taking deep breaths.

"Alright now, go ahead and hit the showers. Your done for the day." He points back to the building.

"Hm." I nod and begin walking into the gym. It's not like I was trying to be the best out there. See, I'm not really an outgoing person. I do more things in my own spare time than I do out in public and in general I just prefer to keep out of the spotlight. I don't speak up in class, I don't do a lot in my power to draw attention to myself and I just do what I can to make myself as small as possible from everyone else I meet. In fact that's kind of one of the reasons why my parents sent me here, as sort of a way to get me out of my shell so to say and try to make some more friends and be a bit more outgoing.

It hasn't really helped all that much as it just makes find more and more places to be secluded from everyone else. Locking myself in my room, playing games, listening to music with my headphones, or the library and anywhere else I find that's away from people.

I'm so lost in my thoughts that I don't realize that I'm already done and back in my regular clothes. Nothing to brag about. A dress shirt and slacks to say before I slip my backpack on me, both straps, then slip my glasses back onto my face. Passing by a mirror I slip my black hair straight down all over, not bothering to comb it to the side or anything. Gym was my last class for the day so I go ahead and head back to my room. By the time I get out the rest of the students already finish their runs and are glad to be done. I keep my head down as I walk past everyone to head down the path I memorize back to my sanctuary. As I pass by the gymnasium area, I can hear grunts of exertion coming from inside. A quick peak shows a guy and a girl practicing fighting inside. I shake my head and continue walking along the outside of the building. _'That's the Pencak Silat I think. No thanks. I prefer my own.'_ All I'm doing in this school is the bare minimum of going to school and that's primarily focusing on my grades and that's about it. It's not exactly an outstanding record for when I go to college, but I'll deal with that when I get to it.

While walking I noticeably tense up as I spot the resident school bully and her cronies walking towards me from the opposite end. I quickly turn to the side and start walking across the dirt courtyard to avoid them. Thankfully, whether she doesn't care or not I'm not sure but I'm just glad she doesn't call me out. She stops some other guy but by then I'm already taking a slightly different route back to my room. Classes start to get let out and people are already roaming the halls to do whatever at this point and I don't care. Being on a different route, I begin making my way faster and faster back to my room as my breathing starts to get more heightened. Seeing the familiar halls back of where my room was located brings me some comfort but I just make a quick beeline for it, nudging a few students here and there but soon I make it to my door.

I almost slam the door closed once I pull myself in and lock it. I drop my bag on the floor, let my glasses fall it and sit on my bed where I grab my head between my hands, trying desperately to steady myself. My breathing begins to soften and slow down but the impending headache makes my head throb almost painfully. I quickly lay on my head, kicking off my shoes before I grab my pillow and put it over my head as I lay on my back.

"Haaaaa." I let out a sigh as the cool feeling of the underside of the pillow helps me a little. My eyes still closed, I continue to lay there for some minutes and just let the feel of cold put me at ease.

The headaches get bad every now and then. I've had them for as long as I can remember but they sometimes will happen without warning, or something will just instigate it out of the blue. Hard to gouge when exactly it will happen but the best I can do is just live with it. It's also one of those things I never mentioned to my family as I don't want them to worry you know.

Other times in my life, I've also had some pretty bad cases of déjà vu at times. Just a few weeks back I could have sworn I already lived through one day but that didn't really seem right. All I figured was,

That was a hell of a dream.

 **Hey everyone. This has been a story that's been on my mind for quite awhile now and after some consideration I just went ahead and decided to go ahead and finally make it. Now to be frank, this story won't be updated as frequently as possibly my other stories because of one crucial fact that I look for in all shows I base my work on. What that is is finding the text transcripts for each episode. By having that it helps me in keeping tracking of what was said here and there without having to rewatch the episodes to know what was said here and there.**

 **Since I can't really find any English transcripts for the show, the dialogue won't line up exactly with what might be said but I'll manage as best I can as things progress.**

 **For now though, I'll go ahead and say that this show was honest to god my childhood and it was several months back that I found the series uploaded to YouTube. For a couple weeks I binge watched the whole series from beginning to end, minus Evolution, and just felt the nostalgic feeling flow through again the whole time. All the while as I watched each and every episode, ideas made themselves known in me trying to come up with some ideas for a story and this is the product. It's so nice to finally get this into words and I hope this gains a fair amount of attention just so I can be even more inspired to continue to write. This prologue was of course going to be a little short but I can assure you things will pick up in the next chapter and we get into the canon part of the show.**

 **I hope this takes off and all of you feel the nostalgia that I will feel as well. Thank you all and I wish everyone of you that reads this a great time to read, and a good day for everyone.**


	2. 2 Teddygodzilla

Another day, another time for school.

' _Wait, didn't I say that before?'_ I think for a second before eventually letting out a sigh as I walk through the halls of the academy. I have a moments break from my classes so I decide to simply walk around to clear my head. I keep my head pointed at the ground to avoid eye contact but really there aren't that many people walking around to pay attention to. The schools having a prom tonight so my best guess is everyone is probably getting their best clothes and makeup on for the event. I shake my head at the thought before I glance into a nearby window. I stop as I notice a couple girls inside but I soon recognize them.

Ah, Milly and Tamiya. Their nice enough people but still I don't really like to be near them when they are doing their little camera shots or interviews. Not really in the mood to be on tv or anything like that. It stems from the fact that the two of them are either 10 or 11 I believe and they are part of the schools resident reporters and news anchors for the schools Kadic News crew. As I said before, the school is supposed to be having a prom sometime tonight for everyone to attend and have fun.

Obviously, I'm not going to go so staying in my room is what I'm going to go do instead. It's not mandatory but advised to get people out in the open and mingle. _'Sounds like my parents.'_ Before I go though, I can't help but notice and watch as they engage with Sissy.

"Let's see whether she'll answer a few questions." Milly says to the camera that Tamiya is holding before looking back at the emerging soon to be crowned queen apparently. _'Perks to being the principals daughter.'_ My own thoughts aside, I listen. "Well Sissy, how about a few words for our TV audience before the big night." She requests of her but form the scowl I'm seeing, Sissy isn't in the mood.

"Sorry munchkins. I only talk to real pro reporters." She says while at the same time one of her cronies, don't know their names but the one in the green shirt an glasses grabs the camera and forces it down. "I have no time to waste on a couple of nerds." She finishes basically insulting them.

"But its for the school news program. What about freedom of the press-?"

"Oh Milly. Little dipsticks your age don't have any freedom, understand?" Sissy interrupts her, turning around after she walks away and stares right back at the reporter. "Anyway, who needs your dumb reporting? What do you know?" She just continues laying into her as the other two walk up. "Besides you got a problem. Don't forget you have to have a date and I don't know anyone who'd want to go with a twerp like you, even them." She refers to the two that always follow her around. "Ask them and they'd run like scared rabbits." I'm pretty sure the way she refers to the two of them kind of leads me to believe its something like an insult but they don't seem all that hurt, considering they wave their hands at Milly and go along with what Sissy is saying.

"Who needs them? There are lots of other boys." Milly herself isn't all that interested in them thankfully and retorts.

"Oh yeah?" Sissy basically toys with her. "What are you waiting for then. Try and find one, hahahaaaa." She laughs it off. My left hand tightens into a fist at how she's toying with her before she looks into the place where they're setting up for the Prom event. A quick glance into the place shows Milly keeping her eyes on a boy around my age holding a ladder.

"Uhhh, um, Ulrich, would uhh… would you be my date for tonight?"

"Oh god." I can't help but moan quietly and place my hand on my head. _'The poor girls even crying.'_ I shake my head before looking back at the conversation.

"Uhhh, I'm sorry Milly." He hesitantly and nervously replies as the girl that was on the ladder climbs down. "It wouldn't be a very good idea. I'm too old for you… and uhhh, you see I promised to go with Yumi." He finishes speaking and referring to the girl next to him.

"You see…"

' _Forget this.'_ I don't even bother to hear what else Sissy has to say about the rejection because I know it's not going to be good or encouraging in the least. My thoughts prove true as before I pass a corner, the doors I was next to listening and watching through burst open with a crying Milly running off. I feel bad seeing her like that I want to go and comfort the embarrassed girl, _'but what can I do?'_ With a dejected sigh, I continue walking, feeling worse than I did before.

* * *

My next classes pass by me in a blur as I still feel bad about the whole affair. At this point I'm already used to how school is or I know the material so it's not like I'm worried about missing anything important. With classes done for the day for me, I head back to my room and finish up any homework I have before I forget. Pretty sure I won't since I'll be there for pretty much the rest of the day as it is. Not to mention since the prom is going to happen tonight, I shouldn't be expecting any interruptions or loud noises in the dorm halls since everyone will most likely be there.

' _Well, almost everyone.'_ I look down sadly at the thought of a crying Milly. She didn't deserve to be bullied like that, not at all and of course its because Sissy is the principal's daughter that no one can prove or do anything about it. It makes me angry about the idea but I just resign myself to feeling down. It's not like I can do anything about it. I just keep quiet and slowly walk as I make my way back to my room with barely any noise by me.

Just as I am about to pass the double doors leading to a building, they suddenly burst open with a still crying Milly running, holding a brown teddy bear in her arms as she runs off. I stand there slightly stunned at the sudden noise before calming down and looking at the running girl.

"Milly!" Tamiya comes out after her but as soon as she passes through the doors, she stops and sadly sighs as she stares at her friend run off. I'm hoping she doesn't notice me standing to the side but eventually she does and stares right at me. We stand there staring at each other for a tense and awkward few seconds until she answers. "I'm sorry about my friend. She's not it a good mood right now." She answers shortly, hoping the vague explanation is enough.

' _That's putting it mildly.'_ I can't help but think as I nod my head to her. "No, its okay. I… heard about what happened… with Sissy." I nervously say. I don't know if it's a personal matter for them but I mostly said it so she knows I understand what happened.

"Oh, yeah… Sissy." She hisses the name and looks away from me in slight anger. Obviously, she being the friend of the person who was hurt, she won't have nice things to say about the sassy witch. As she looks back at me though, her look turns to curiosity as she stares at me. "I haven't seen you around school. Are you new here? I'm Tamiya." She asks and gives me her name. I uncomfortably rub the back of my neck at the insinuation, which I'm not really surprised she thinks that.

"No. No I'm not new. I just… prefer to keep under the radar, you know? Don't like drawing attention to myself. That's probably why you haven't seen me or taken notice of me." I quietly explain.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She apologizes but I wave her down.

"It's fine. I kind of prefer it like that to be honest. I'm Alex." I reply, looking elsewhere that's not her but quickly giving my name. I'm still pretty bad with people. As I look around, I notice Milly's distant form head towards the tools shed. "It looks like she went to the shed. Better go get her before Jim catches her there. I don't think being heartbroken is an excuse to hang around a place we're not allowed to will fly with him." I quickly direct her attention elsewhere. I'm still not good talking with others so I go ahead and try to focus her elsewhere. She quickly looks to where her friend went and nods back to me.

"Oh crud. I better go help her then. Thank you!" She calls out to me, waving back at me as she runs off after her friend.

I offer a small wave back but nothing else as I watch her run after her friend. Once she's out of my sight, I resume my walk back to my room, slightly better at giving the warning but still down.

* * *

The rest of the day passes by in a blur until its night. As usual, I stay in my room and just spend the rest of my time lazing about. I knocked out my homework in no time flat before resorting to just playing some games on the computer.

Well, in actuality the computer is just the screen while my console is the one playing the game. The school doesn't exactly allow full on game consoles, as well as other types of items, although I think handhelds are okay but I can't be too sure, to not be allowed on school grounds so when I originally came here, I wasn't told about the fact.

So it took some doing, a little tinkering, a bit of coding and I was able to jury rig something to get me to play my xbox console on the computer since a TV was out of the question. Now to keep my occupied and have some fun at times, playing video games is what I use to pass the time and just have fun. I also have it setup under my bed with the wires leading up to it so if I had company, at worst Jim, come by, or an inspection, it would be a simple matter of unplugging the cords, stuffing them under and pushing stuff in the way under it would be a temporary solution for the full-on inspections and room decorum they sometimes do. I'd have to get creative but I'd manage. It's a simple matter of using headphones so no one can hear me playing but I'd have to keep one of my ears open and the volume somewhat low so I can hear if people are knocking.

Of course, now's not the time that I'm playing as I had my fill already. For now, I'm simply surfing the web for anything that may catch my interest. Mostly videos but eh, whatever.

*…boom…*

"Hm?" I question as I feel something. A dull small rumbling that was quick but noticeable. Since I was sitting perfectly still, I was able to feel the odd occurrence. Of course it could also be a figment of my imagina—

*…Boom…*

"Okay, not my imagination." I relent to the mystery and get up to look out the window.

Before I can properly look though, several rapid knocks going on outside my room. They start off on the other dorms doors from what I can tell but soon they begin to get louder and closer. I watch as my door rumbles from the rapid knocks on it. "Hey! Is anyone in there?! You have to get out!" A female voice calls out.

"What?" I question to myself before I walk over to the door and proceed to open the door. Whoever it is seems to be really frantic in getting peoples attention if she was banging on everyone's doors. As soon as I open the door I'm met with a slightly out of breath Asian student, probably Japanese, wearing a black shirt and sleeves but looks relieved to see me.

"Oh good, listen, do you know if theirs anyone else left in the building?" She quickly asks me.

I look at her oddly for a few seconds before shaking my head slowly. "Not that I know. Pretty much everyone left for the dance. What's going on?" I quickly ask once I tell her. Apparently, my question catches her off guard as she freezes and her eyes widen.

"Oh! Uhh, uhh…"

*Boom*

This time, the rumbling gets louder and rougher as I can practically feel it through my entire body instead of just my feet. We both look around before she looks right at me. "Earthquake!" She loudly and quickly tells me. "Theirs supposed to an earthquake happening and we have to evacuate." She explains.

Somehow, I don't really buy it. The hesitation she exhibited earlier, along with the pause in the rumbling doesn't really fit with the idea of it being an earthquake.

*Boom!*

Okay that time I wobbled on my feet! I don't have time to dissect the situation or her hesitation. "Okay. Let's get out of here." As soon as I agree, she looks relieved and runs down the hall with me about to follow. I barely make it a few steps before I realize something. "Wait!" I quickly call out to her, making her slide to a stop and look back at me as I run up to her. "Milly and Tamiya! I'm pretty sure they weren't going to go to the dance. It may be a good idea to check out their room just in case." From the heartbreak and overall down feelings that Milly was hit with, its highly doubtful she'd go, not with Sissy there and Tamiya as a friend would stay to comfort her.

"Milly and… Mm, okay. Head outside. I'll go find them." She says to me before bursting through the doors and I follow. My social skills in being with other people may not be the best but I think I can suck it up in a crisis situation. She speeds ahead of me to get to the lower class dorm rooms while I trail behind a bit. No way am I running until I make sure the two are alright. By the time I make it to the entrance of the hallway, I see the girl knocking on the doors and calling out for them. The door opens up and she looks relieved a little.

"Did you find them?" I call out. My question is answered as I see Milly and Tamiya exit their room to look at me.

*CRASH*

A loud noise of tearing concreate and rubble can be heard just outside. We all jump in surprise from the noise and slight rumbling that follows. "C'mon! We have to get out of here!" I wave them to me so we can go. They don't argue or the two don't question it as they all run to me with the sounds outside still being there but slightly less noisy than before. I hold the door open for them before all four of us make our way outside. As soon as we burst outside, the scene before us is something I had never thought I'd ever see in my entire life.

For one thing, we come upon the gym that's holding the event where everyone is at, except now everyone is running out in a frantic mob, and there is a giant hole in the side of the building that for sure wasn't caused by any earthquake. "What the…?" I whisper in confusion on what's going on.

Suddenly, a low moan and more rumblings can be heard along with more voices followed by several windows suddenly breaking apart. "Ulrich!" The Japanese girl that got us suddenly says and runs off into the hole without another word. The girls and I stare at her in confusion as she runs off. The sounds inside continue to heard and don't sound pleasant.

I'm almost tempted to run away with everyone else. "You two get out of here. Get help." Almost. I quickly tell the girls before heading for the hole. If another student is brave enough to run in and help, the least I can do is find some way to help. _'This is stupid this is stupid this is stupid.'_ My concerns are still reserved for my action as I can't help but repeat in my head over and over again as I run TOWARD the danger instead of away from it. _'This is REALLY STUPID.'_ I add one last time before passing through the hole and find out what's causing the destruction.

…

A giant teddy bear was the furthest thing I would have ever thought that would be the cause of the destruction. Actually, it wasn't even a thought. It was a possibility that I would never have thought of at any point my life. I stand there stunned and so does the girl as we watch the bear stand over a boy. I don't know who but I can guess it's the Ulrich she mentioned earlier. He's frozen as the bear gets ready to crush him with its giant paw. A normal sized teddy bear would be no problem but the damage to the building and the giant footsteps outside speak differently about its strength and how much danger my fellow student is in. _'Oh no.'_ I mentally think and quickly look for something that I can use. Soon my eyes land on a lone piece of slightly bent rebar that was taken out of the wall from this things attack.

My body has mind of its own apparently because I scoop up the metal piece and run straight for the back of the monster before I come to a decision. I hear the girl call out to me but my mind remains focused on my apparent target as I slide over a table.

Rebar in hand, head right behind the bear as it gets ready to crush the kid. "Hrahh!" I yell and with as much force as I can, I stab the bear right in the heel, or whatever area it is for the bears flat foot but it works as the stuffing gives way to the metal pole. The monster falls to the ground on his paws and knees, barely missing the boy as its giant paw crashes right next to him. He quickly gets up and runs over to the side as the bear is momentarily stunned. I hear it give off a low growl in anger and tries to get up. "Uh oh." I mutter and quickly begin to back away. I'm not fast enough though as it quickly turns around and stares right at me. Its red eyes staring right into- "Aaahhh!" I yell in pain as another headache tears itself through my mind. _'What?! Why?! Why now?!'_ I can barely even make those coherent thoughts as it just gets a million times worse, my head throbbing like crazy as I close my eyes and just about collapse onto my knees. "Not… now…" I groan as I press my fingers harder into my head in a futile attempt to relieve the pain. Whether it works or not I don't know but the headache is gone just as quick as it happened, allowing me to open my eyes and let out a series of ragged breathing.

"Watch out!" Someone yells out. Quickly taking the advice, my eyes up and I watch as the bear is now ontop of me with its arm pulled back and ready to strike. "Move it!"

I take the advice of the students life I saved earlier and immediately jump to my feet before running back as fast as I can. I don't go far as I roll over a table but just as I am about to land my feet back down onto the ground, the table completely shatters into a million pieces and I am launched. "Arhhhh!" I shout as I am momentarily lifted into the air and come down hard onto the smooth but hard gym floor. I roll a few times before I slam into the retracted bleachers. I grunt as my back hits them but as I try to get up, loud thunderous footsteps make themselves known and fear starts to grip me. It doesn't take much to find out it's the bear walking up to me. I freeze as I see it walking up to me, ready to attack me and end me.

"Hey!" Before it can however, the thing stand for a microphone comes sailing from the side and stabs right into the side of the bears head. It lets out a groan as it almost collapses from the stab but immediately turns in the direction it came from, as do I. "Over here you overstuffed toy!" The boy I saved earlier stands on the stage, waving his arms to get its attention. The monster takes the challenge and begins to make its way over to him.

"Here. Let me help." Suddenly, the girl comes up to me from behind and helps me to my feet.

"Mm, thanks." I grunt as she pulls me to my feet. I'm not seriously injured or anything, just some bruises and soreness so I stand on my own well enough once she helps me to my feet. We look and watch as the bear stands right in front of the stage and stares menacingly at Ulrich. He too stands there waiting for the monster to make its first move. The giant enemy does as it reels its right arm back and gets ready to strike while Ulrich bends his legs, ready to move.

"Ulrich!" The girl yells in fear of him getting hurt. I hold my breath as I wait for the thing to attack and possibly run to get away from it. I wait.

And wait… and wait.

"Huh?" Ulrich mutters confused as we just watch the thing stand there, frozen. It makes no move whatsoever as it just stands there staring where it was aiming. Ulrich slowly moves forward, careful to keep on guard incase it does attack but it's just standing there. _'What happened to it?'_ I question in my own head as Ulrich moves closer to the bear, now more relaxed as he walks right up to it but there's no reaction from the monster. He even kicks it a couple times but there's no response whatsoever. "Huh, guess they deactivated the tower." He mutters outloud.

"Tower?" I question confused on what a tower has to do with this thing suddenly stopping.

"Ulrich!" The girl next to me suddenly runs up to him, worried and freely able to move now that the monster is done fighting us. "Are you okay?" She asks. He looked a little tossed around earlier but nothing bad, like me.

"Yeah sure." He alleviates her concerns and she hugs him, making a noticeable blush appear on his face. While the moment is nice and all, and I can't help but focus on the giant bear that was the cause of all this destruction. They smile at each other but look uncertain as I walk up to them, staring at the frozen bear.

"While the dangers passed, you two think you can enlighten me about this thing?" I ask them because I have the distinct feeling they know more about this.

They both look at each other and smile before turning to me. "Don't worry about it." The girl says to me.

"Wha-?" I begin to say confused but suddenly a large bright light begins to head towards us.

"Thanks for your help back there." Ulrich says to me before turning to the girl. "Ready for a trip into the past, Yumi?" I can't even utter a sound before the large bright white light engulfs us all.

* * *

"Uhhh, um, Ulrich, would uhh… would you be my date?"

Milly asks Ulrich in an almost heartbreaking tone. "Be glad to Milly." He actually agrees, much to Sissy's groups surprise and Milly's elation as he crouches to her level. "I'll see you here at 8:00." He says to her.

"Really?" She asks in disbelief but secretly she seems to be happy.

"Why sure." He stands back to his fully height and looks at Yumi. "You're not too mad at me, are you Yumi?" He asks her.

"Not at all." She's happy about it actually. "Anyway, my secret admirer will take me tonight. Right Odd?" She asks the last guy with the blond hair with the purple highlight in the middle and purple clothing.

"Whaaaaat?!" Sissy loudly shouts in confusion and a bit of anger mixed in. "But… Ulrich! Your gonna… go with tha-… that silly baby?!" she asks in complete disbelief.

"That's right I sure am." He smugly tells her straight up. "But don't worry, when your brain gets another neuron or two, maybe I'll go out with you too."

"GRrrrrr!" Sissy lets out a high pitched growl at the insult as everyone laughs, including myself as well but softer.

"You are recording Tamiya I hope." Milly asks her friend with the camera.

"You bet I am. This is a scoop."

"A super scoop." Milly adds as well and everyone is just happy that the tables have kind of turned on Sissy.

I smile at the development but I linger a little too long as I see the camera change direction and look at me. "Ge!" I grunt and quickly make myself scarce. Ducking under the window so I'm not seen I quickly make my way forward until I pass a corner and am out of possible eye shot. I can't help but let out a breath of air as I move away from being seen and get ready for my next class. Glad to see Ulrich and Yumi are alright and everything is o—

I freeze almost mid-step, a confused thought entering my mind as I realize something.

' _Wait, that's their names… but… how did I know?'_ I never met them before, or noticed them, and yet… I know… how?

My thoughts lead back to yesterday, I think.

That… that was a dream… right?

* * *

 **And so, Alex has had his first taste of an attack by XANA… or he did. He's going to have to be careful as things may pick up when more and more XANA attacks will take place, and his headaches and mysterious visions begins to take a toll on his mind. Gonna be tough for him to recall all these changing days.  
**

 **No biggie, right?**

 **Serius:** I'm glad you liked it. This show has been in my head for awhile and felt its about time this story was to be seen by all. Hopefully my story gets you into watching the whole show.

 **Which reminds me, everyone of you who hasn't watched the show itself, I highly recommend it. It's an old show so the nostalgia is just teeming off it as I remember all the moments and adventures the Lyoko warriors went so if you all want to see the progress and action that these kids have gone through and have a better idea of what the events are going to be like, all the episodes are one YouTube.**

 **That's right, everyone single episode of Code Lyoko is one YouTube and has been there for awhile now so if you all want to watch, it's a simple matter of going on it and watching them. The uploader for the episodes on YouTube is "CODE LYOKO ENGLISH OFFICIAL" so its shouldn't be too hard to find what you need. However if you want a playlist that houses every single episode in chronological order then your going to look for the one named "danmon1234" and that should help.**

 **Thank you those of you who have already faved and followed this story. It's a start and I plan to keep going a bit more. Thanks everyone and make sure to have fun reading and have a great day.**


	3. 3 Holiday In the Fog

**Happy Halloween everyone!**

 **Sorry for the late chapter but it was a big one so I hope y'all understand. Over 12,000 words, plus something else happened that kind of forced me to delay this chapters release for about a week. Important explanation at the end so make sure to check that out.**

 **Thank you and enjoy the ride.**

* * *

"Alex? Honey are you there?"

"Huh?" I mumble into the phone and shake my head a little but keeping my ear on the receiver. "Oh yeah mom I'm here. Just got caught up in my thoughts for a second. You were saying?"

"I was asking if your sure you wanted to stay? Your father and I can always cancel the business trip. It's nothing THAT important."

"No nononono its okay mom. I'll be fine. It'll be nice to kind of wander the school alone. Gives a sort of ambiance that can't be matched anywhere else." It's kind of true. When you originally go to school, its always to go to class, clubs or something school related more often than not along with other students. Actually spending the time to hang around the school when you don't have to do school work or walk with other students has a sort of feeling to it that's pretty cool.

"Are you sure? It's no trouble—"

"Mom, its okay. I'm fine." I try to assure her everything is alright. I guess since everyone else in the school is leaving to go on vacation, I'm not surprised she might be a little sad she's not taking.

"Well, alright." She finally resigns and I smile. "How are things going over there by the way? Did you make some new friends?" And there goes the smile.

"Ehhhh, not so much. I've been mostly focusing on school." I awkwardly tell her.

I hear a deep disappointed sigh on the other end. "Alex, you know that's the reason we sent you over there? To get you to make friends, to come out of your shell and actually do stuff instead of being a loner all the time."

I let out my own sigh and scratch my head with my free hand. "Sorry to disappoint mom."

She lets out another sigh. "Alright, just… please make more of an effort, okay?"

"I'll try." _'Sorry.'_

"I guess that's all I can ask. Anyway, I'll talk to you another time. Take care." She says to me in a caring. The disappointment and sadness I was starting to feel or that was about us starts to eb away.

"You too, tell dad I said 'hi.' Good luck on the trip."

"We will."

Before my mom cuts off the phone, I can hear some other voices and some scuffling noises and I begin to worry a little that something is going on. "Hey bro! What's up?! How's it—"

*Click*

And my phone closes. I let out a deep sigh as my brother almost talked to me. Still, I can't help but smirk and shake my head before I begin walking away. _'I love the guy but I just don't really feel like being teased right now.'_ Typical big brother lifestyle, harasses and teases the younger.

Walking. That's what I've been doing a lot lately. With the conversation with my family done, it's just something to do in the meantime. When I'm not going to class or hanging out in my room, I've been taking some walks to try to clear my head of all the crazy stuff that's been going on with me. The headaches are getting worse and these freaky but scarily accurate dreams are not getting any better.

How did I know about Ulrich and Yumi's name when I never met them before? Did I hear about their names once and simply dream about later on?

"Nnn." I grunt as the headache hits me again but its only a small one before I continue walking to my destination. I had a severe case of Déjà vu several weeks back and the days were just too accurate to coincidence, then weeks later that freaky teddy bear dream happened, showing SOMEHOW I knew their names… and several days ago, the other incident…

* * *

" _Oh god oh god oh god!" I shout as I run down the basements steps. Carefully I manage to skip steps as I run down the flight of stairs basically at any chance I get but right now I am evidently freaking out._

 _The reason for that being is the fact that an alarm has gone off over the whole town for everyone to evacuate. Why? Well it has something to do with an UNSTABLE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT! "Keep moving! Keep moving keep moving!" I yell to myself, somehow hoping the verbal words to myself will get my butt into higher gear to get to somewhere safely. The alarm went out and everyone already tried to evacuate the school and soon the city. The reason why I'm not trying to run out of the city is because there's no way I can outrun a nuclear meltdown and I can't guarantee getting any other forms of transportation out of the city, especially with the traffic possibly going to be blocked or congested._

 _Therefore, best option I can think of… underground. "I really really hope this works." I mutter to myself before finally I hit the bottom, the basements boiler room.. "This is good… but more is better." I quickly grab whatever I can find and just start blocking the stairwell, the only way here. I don't know if it'll do much but another thing I have to becareful of is the fallout. No doubt its possible radiation will blanket the place and if I go back outside, I'll die. "Oh god. I just trapped myself." I make the realization as I grab my head with both my hands. I begin to hyperventilate that I just screwed myself over._

 _At least until I notice another door at the end of the room. "Yes." I bolt over to it before I pull it open. I can't help but smile as I see its another staircase heading deeper underground. "Thank you!" I shout and quickly shut the door behind me before moving down the stairs. With a door now blocking the way up, I start to feel a whole lot better now but the idea of nuclear fallout still hammers in my head and my breathing continues to become heavy. "This is happening… this is really happening?" I can scarcely believe it and even though I am underground… the thought is still… bad… very bad. "Oh my god I hope this works." I slow my steps as they begin to level out to more solid ground. "Hopefully I can find enough tunnels to lead me out of the city." It's going to suck wading through the sewers but I think that's going to be a good alternative than the other option. "Finally, hit the bottom. Now I just need… to…" As soon as I hit the ground where the stairs go into the sewer, I slowly stop and look on confused. "What the-?" I ask confused before everything goes white._

* * *

Then I woke up and the massive feeling of déjà vu was just too much. I'm really starting to freak out about all this. These dreams are to coincidental with how things go and the headaches are still just as bad. I'm almost afraid to go into the sewer and confirm what I saw because while the name thing would be explained as unconscious information I picked up at random and don't remember, their would be no way I can logically explain what I found and I would probably lose it.

I'm already freaking out enough as it is I don't need anymore now!

' _Breathe…'_ I stop, close my eyes and take a deep breath, inhaling the fresh air outside as I slowly ease my heart to a manageable rhythm. Once it does, I open my eyes again and continue my walk along the outside of the building. Speaking of their names I knew, I've been keeping a distance from them as much as I can. As soon as I see them, I can't help but freeze up and do a complete turn in another direction. At this point I'm not as worried about other people as just don't want to be near them anymore or risk screwing my head again

"At least I'll be here alone with only a few faculty members. Can just relax and not have to worry about anyone else." I mutter to myself quietly with small smile.

"You sure you wanna do this Jeremy?" The familiar voice of Ulrich can be heard around the corner. I quickly stop and slowly press myself against the wall before slowly peaking out. I spot the trio I've seen before, Ulrich, Yumi, the yellow haired one named Odd, and a fourth wearing glasses, and wear blue turtleneck with tan shorts. I'll assume he's the one named Jeremy.

"I kind of have to guys. Someones gotta stay here and monitor things with Aelita."

"Well, yeah but you don't have to get in trouble you know?" Yumi asks him.

"True, but it is the quickest and sure fire solution to get them to force me to stay. And we can't afford the possibility of a tower activating."

' _Tower?'_ I mentally question. In fact I think I remember Ulrich mentioning something like that in the weird dream I had.

"I guess your right. At least here you'll be able to get to the factory faster than the rest of us." Yumi says in a disappointed tone.

"Odd, you got the spray paint?" Ulrich asks him.

"Right here!" Odd happily shouts as he pulls open his backpack for them to see. I can just make out the top of a couple cans of spray paint.

"Shhhhh!" The others quickly shush him and force him to close his backpack. "Are you crazy? Only one of us needs to get in trouble, not all of us!" Jeremy scolds him.

"Yeah! My dad will kill me if I get detention now!" Ulrich quietly shouts at his friend.

Meanwhile, Odd sheepishly rubs the back of his head. "Ehehe. Sorry." He apologizes and zips up the bag.

I barely listen to the rest though as I begin to realize that I won't be as alone as I thought anymore. _'He's staying?! What?! Nooo!'_ I grit my teeth in anger, same with my fists before I slam my fist into the outside wall.

*SMACK*

"Huh? Did you guys here something?" Yumi asks. I freeze up but not for long as my blunder just nearly screwed me. I immediately begin fast walking as quick as I can away from them until I make it to the nearest door and away from them. This just got a lot more complicated.

* * *

Ulrich makes his way around the corner and just barely catches someone turning the corner. Even though he didn't see his face, he has the distinct feeling he knows who the person was that ran.

"Ulrich, what is it?" Yumi and the others come up to him to see what he's looking at but don't see anything or what he saw.

"Hmmm, nothing nothing." He waves them down before walking away. "Hey, have you guys noticed anyone acting… strange around us?" He asks them but he mostly gets confused expressions.

"Like who?" Jeremy asks.

"Well, Yumi, remember that guy that helped us when we dealt with that giant teddybear?" He asks their female friend, who gets a thoughtful expression as she thinks back to what had happened then.

"Yeah, I do. Huh, actually now that you mention I've noticed he's been avoiding us alot." Yumi recalls.

"That's right. I swear one time we were walking towards each other on the outside of the main building when he went in a completely different direction." He looks at her. "I'm pretty sure he went around the building to avoid me."

"But that doesn't make sense. He shouldn't have remembered you guys after the return to the past, right? Have you met him before and done something to make him angry?" Jeremy prods them for possible answers to this but they shake their heads no.

"Whoa whoa whoa, are you two thinking he knows?" Odd speaks up, a question of disbelief at the idea.

Ulrich and Yumi are just about to tell him no… but soon they are unsure themselves as they look at each other.

' _But how?'_ They both think.

* * *

The next days begin to roll around, the week our vacation is supposed to start for everyone but now, it seems more than a few people aren't really going home. The principal and some of the faculty, such as Jim, were told of my parents inability to pick me up so they opted to let me stay. Of course, as I had learned about the day before, Jeremy is also staying too and while I think avoiding him may be somewhat doable for me, its when I also learn that ANOTHER person is staying.

Sissy.

I groan while I walk down the halls at the thought. Like I said, avoiding him would have been a somewhat simpler task but with Sissy here of all people and I can be sure that I'll be ridiculed at some point. Although to be honest I haven't exactly been the center of ire at any point because of how 'under the radar' I've placed myself. Even so I have seen how bad she can be and with barely anyone being here, the chances of me getting hit so to say are that much more prominent.

"Can things get any worse?" I ask myself just as I open the door. "Aackkk!" I let out a strangled cry as I am blasted with a mist of purpleish-pink cloud. My lungs seize up and I just barely stay conscious enough to slam the door closed. I let out several hard coughs as a way to help clear my airway and it works, somewhat. "Oh… crap… ow… what…?" I try to say but it hurts. I push myself along the side wall, pressing my left hand against it while my free hand grasps my throat. "What… happened?" I manage to ask myself but my answer isn't answered until I look out the window. A quick look shows that that whatever hellish gas is outside and completely covering the area. "What the…?" I mutter in confusion at the odd gas occurrence. It's not a light poisonous gas as it seems to only congregate on the ground and not filter throughout the entire airway. "That's… way bad." I uneasily say as I stand there and watch the freaky but deadly gas filter all around. It's a good thing its time for everyones vacations. Things would be some much worse if EVERYONE was still here.

My focus changes however as I notice the gas is starting to filter in through the cracks in the door. _'Everyone may be gone but I'm still here!'_ I yell in my mind before I begin to backpedal and eventually full on sprinting down the hallways. "What's going on? How is this happening?! Some type of gas leak?" I begin to ask myself question before shaking my head. _'No, that can't be. That's not gas I've ever seen used in human buildings, and I barely inhaled it before I felt like I was going to die.'_ My train of thoughts and idea as to what's going on completely derails as when I'm about to continue to down another cross hallway, more of the gas blocks me, same as behind me. "And why does it feel like its chasing me?" Thankfully, I'm not completely blocked as I have third way to go: down. "Screw it." I take the chance and jump down a couple steps at a time to just get away from this thing. "Please let my dream be true." I mutter as I make it down to the basement. My hope bares fruit as I make it to the bottom and immediately spot the other door. "Yes!" I shout in happiness and sprint over to the door and grasp the handle.

…

I just realize I am about to do something that I didn't want to do before. Going into the sewer was something I didn't want to do at all for fear of what I might find. Even now, as I found this door, even though I have never been down here before, only confirms it. Going further… will only worsen it.

However as I turn around, I spot the gas flowing towards me. _'No choice.'_ I take a deep breath, figuratively, don't want to breathe that crap in, and go in before closing the door behind me. I start to move fast down the stairs but eventually I begin to lessen my pace. My walking becomes slower and slower until I know I am about to hit the bottom. _'Please no… please no… please no…'_ I repeat in my head over and over again, hoping to anything at this point I'm not going to find what I saw.

I hit the bottom.

…

Slowly, I walk over, my footsteps being loud and thunderous in the tunnel complex, making them pound against my head and its rapidly growing headache. That still doesn't stop me from walking over and slowly picking up the skateboard lying against the wall.

' _It's real.'_ I think as I take the board in both hands and hold it firmly, making sure it is in fact real. _'What the hell is wrong with me? How did I know?'_ The headache passes me finally and I let the board dangle in my left hand as I stare at the other boards and scooter here. I stare at them for what feels like a long time before staring up at the ladder going to the manhole to the top. For a second, I consider going up… but I know I didn't go that far from the school. With only one other option, I look down the rest of the sewer tunnel and look down. Upon closer look, I spot tracks implanted on the grime covered stone floor. _'There's a reason these are here._ ' I look back up, before looking forward. _'I don't have a choice. I need to keep moving.'_ Forgoing my fragile mindset right now over recent developments, I put the board back where it was and begin my jog down the sewer, hoping all the way to find a way out.

* * *

It took me awhile but I found what I needed. Eventually, the tunnel led to a closed off gated tunnel exit. The bars aren't wide enough for me to exit through them but thankfully the ladder leading up to a manhole was just the thing I needed. Slowly I begin pulling myself up the ladder as I ascend and climb up. Thankfully, the manhole cover up top isn't locked in place so I'm able to simply push it up and out of my way.

As soon as my head comes above ground, I can't help but suck in a big lungful of clean air. Turns it sucks walking through a sewer. I pull myself out and fully onto the outside where I sit there. "Haaaa… huuuuu…" I sit there breathing in and out until I properly catch my breath. Once I'm good, I quickly reclose the manhole and get to my feet. "Okay… what no-?" I begin ask myself as I look around the area until I notice the building I am close to.

* * *

" _I guess your right. At least here you'll be able to get to the factory faster than the rest of us."_

* * *

' _Factory…'_ I remember something that Yumi mentioned when I eavesdropped on their group. The boards, the tracks lead here. "So what's so special about you?" I ask myself but of course I don't get an answer. Taking a quick look around, making sure I'm clear, I shrug and make my way over the bridge towards the factory. "Well, guess I should find some." Since I'm kind of out of the way of that deadly gas back at the school, their really isn't anything else I can do at this point. "Hope the others made it out okay." The faces of the others still at the school flash in my mind, namely Jeremy, Sissy, and Jim. I may not like Sissy, and she may not be a well liked person in general, but that doesn't mean she deserves to die, especially not to… whatever that was. I shiver a little at the short memory I have of the pain from the gas hitting me for only a second. It was so bad I would not wish on my worst enemies.

Good thing I don't have any.

The factory is indeed abandoned as I slowly make my way through the open doorway. When I do, the place is pretty much as big as it looks like from the outside with a ton of space. "Hellooooooo!" I call out into the place, wondering if theirs at least someone here. I get nothing in return, barely even an echo of my own voice. "Okay, no one here, now," I look over the edge to the ground floor of the factory that I am currently not on. "How do I get down?" I ask myself as I look for paths towards the elevator at the bottom. I see some chains hanging in front of me… but I'm not really in the mood to take the chance to fall and kill myself so I decide to take the long way and walk down the stairs. Eventually, I come to the elevator and step in, surprised to find it still in working order.

Just as I hit the elevator button to go down, I notice the panel is loosely open. I open it and see a number pad on the inside. "Hm?" I question and take a closer look at it. When I do, I notice the elevator isn't moving at all. "Needs a code maybe?" _'What type of factory was this that needs a secret code?'_ Questioning thoughts aside, I notice that a few of the number keys on the corners are slightly worn away than the others. _'Maybe I can…'_ Basically guessing at this point, I go ahead and press the four keys. I get a little frustrated though when I get nothing from the first code, and then the next few after, but eventually I manage to find the right combination as the shutter closes. I smirk in satisfaction at having gotten. "Thank god it doesn't have a shutdown when I input too many errors." I comment to myself and lean back in the elevator, waiting for wherever this is taking.

While the elevator slowly begins to descend, I can't help but admire and take note of how clean looking it is. Not to mention the fact that this place is supposed to be abandoned and yet the elevator has working power. Even so, the headache is slowly coming back to me again so I press my head to the cold walls of the elevator. It helps a little and while I wait, I can't help but be reminded of the others, the group with Ulrich and Yumi. _'They talked about towers or something like that, and the factory, plus a person named Aelita. Now I don't know everyone in the school but that name doesn't really strike me. With the skateboards back in the sewer and the tracks I followed, all this seems to be connected.'_ The elevator comes to a stop. I push myself off the wall and walk up to the shutter door. ' _But what?'_

As soon as the shutter opens, I am surprised to see a heck of a separate door on the other side with a circular mechanism I have never seen before. "What the—" I mutter in surprise at the surprisingly advanced looking door but that pales in comparison to the room I suddenly find myself in. "Holy—!" I can't even finish my sentence at the highly advanced computer and some type of holographic display in the middle. Ever so slowly I make my way into the room and just admire the place and how advanced and beautiful this place looks. "What is this?" I ask as I walk and slowly spin. The place is clean, active and doesn't look to be rundown. "There is no way this place is as abandoned as it looks." I comment before I stop and stare at the giant holographic thing in the middle. I can't accurately tell exactly what it is but it feels like something out of Halo.

My admiring doesn't last long though as I hear something else besides the small whir of the machinery and computers. Almost like… panting? "Guuha! Please… someone help!" I hear a voice, almost startling as I look around for the voice. The rapid pants of an out of breath person sounds like they're originating from the computer itself.

I make my way around to the screen. The interface looks pretty bad and the keyboard looks crazy as well. I grab the small headset on the keyboard as I hear the person call out for help again before slowly putting it up to my ear. "Uhhh, hello?"

"Jeremy?!" The girl calls out in relief.

"Uh, no. Sorry. I'm… Alex." I hesitantly give my name. I don't know who I'm talking but she sounds in trouble.

"What? We… where are the others?" She asks frantically, which at this point I think she's running.

"IIIII…" I look around to see no one else here, just to double check. "I don't know. I just got here

"Aahhh!" A cry of pain emanates from her, putting me on edge.

"Hey! What happened?! What's wrong?!" I quickly ask as the screen changes a little. I read some of the text, showing that the current area she's in is a forest area. I soon see one blip being followed by a few red ones.

"I was just hit. How many life points do I have left?" She grunts and sounds like she's continuing to run.

"Life points, whe-?" I begin to ask in confusion but and some kind of card with a girl with pink hair pops up on the screen. From what I can tell, it shows her life points I think they are just went from 100 to 80. "Uhhh, 80."

"Okay." She replies and the only thing that can be heard is her running and grunts of exertion. As I watch her marker on the screen, she makes a sudden turn and seems to be hiding behind something but I don't really know. If its in the forest area, maybe a tree or something. Soon, the red enemies pass her position and keep going forward, even splitting at a crossroad.

"Looks like your clear." I inform her.

She lets out a breath of air in relief. "Thank you." She thanks me.

"No problem." I lean back and let out my own breath of relief. Now that the danger to her has passed, I lean forward and make sure I can talk in the mic. "Hey, can you answer some questions for me? I'm really confused by all this." I tell her.

"Uhhh, okay." Soon, the screen changes and the pink-haired girl on the card is full screen, looking at me. "Hi. My names Aelita."

' _Aelita… so this is her.'_ "Nice to meet you, Aelita." I say with a smile and a nod. "Like I said before, the names Alex." She nods back to me with a smile.

"Good to meet you. Are you a friend of Jeremy's?" She asks.

This time, I get a unsure look before answering. "Mmm, not really. I barely know the guy. I kind of just… stumbled upon this place." I keep my answer short but vague. After what she just went through, I don't think she needs a long winded explanation as to what happened to get me here. I glance around the room then back to her. "What's going on? This place is… different than what I've usually seen." I ask her.

She gets a worried expression but looks at me nonetheless. "Hold on, first have you noticed anything weird where you're at? Something… different and really out of place than what you normally see?"

"…" I tense up at her questions before I remember what helped force me here in the first place. "Yyyyyesss. Some type of gas attacked me and forced to run, eventually leading me here."

"XANA." She spits the odd name with bitter anger, surprising me a little at the relieved girl just a little while ago but whoever that is must be really bad news. "Listen," Her anger changes to one of almost pleading, "Please, I NEED to get to the tower and deactivate it or else people will get hurt and possibly die. I can't go at it alone. Not with XANA's monsters everywhere. I need you to come here and help me fight them off."

"Come there?" I ask confused, unsure of what she means. "What do you mean? How?"

"Where I am in is the virtual world called Lyoko. Below you is another floor with scanners that can virtualize your body and transport you here to help me." _'Wow, that sounds scary… and a little cool.'_ "When you appear, you'll have your own clothes, weapons and abilities than what you would have in the real world. Please, I don't know when Jeremy and the others will get here and I need help now. Can you help me?" She asks in an almost scared tone.

' _Wow she's… she's really afraid and worried beyond belief.'_ It sounds simple enough but I remember what happened a little while ago with her life points. "What happens if you lose all your life points?" I ask in a grim tone.

She looks down, "Then… I'm gone… forever." She answers in a sad tone. The atmosphere declines because of the grim bad news.

I gulp and ask my next question, "And… what happens if I lose all my life points?" I really hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those things where you die in this alternate world and you die in real life. That would… kind of detract my want to go in.

Thankfully, she gets a more relaxed look. "Don't worry. You'll be safe. You'll wake up dizzy and a little weak but you'll be alive and safe back there in the real world." She answers with a small smile. I think she's thinking that since I don't have as harsh a punishment as her, I'd be more inclined to go.

She's not wrong. _'So… something is attacking people here in the real world and the only way to stop it is if I go into this mysterious world myself with someone I have never met before… yeah, sounds about right.'_ I lean back in the chair and place my right hand under my chin. "So, you have everything to lose, while I don't. And if I don't do anything, its very likely that people are going to die if I just sit here where its safe."

She looks at me uneasily at the small recap explanation that seems to be more in favor of me staying here and that's it. To most people it would be more beneficial and safe to simply hunker down in a safe area and wait things out, regardless of the possibility of people getting hurt.

After a few seconds of silence and me thinking, I lean forward in the chair… and smirk. "Tell me what to do."

The smile she gives is nice.

* * *

"Gah!" I grunt as I land on my hands and knees. Already my senses feel like they've been cranked up to 11 and everything is just so… vibrant.

At any other time I may not be so inclined to go into a mysterious virtual world and help out a random stranger, however being the gamer I am, going INTO something that somewhat resembles or sounds like a video game just makes me a tiny bit giddy at the idea.

Once I look up, already I can tell instantly that this place is whole lot different than where I just was. I push myself up until I stand but once I do, I take a closer look at my new look. _'Aelita wasn't kidding about the new clothes.'_ This is definitely something else that's for sure. Thick dark brown leather gloves cover my hands and wrists and don't really restrictive my movements. I can actually feel through them as if they are a part of me as I assess the rest of me. A long wide brown duster coat covers the rest of my arms and runs the length of my body from my neck to my feet with the front open, revealing the black armor piece on me with gray undershirt. The body armor still feels a part of me so pretty sure its mostly for aesthetic appeal, which I'm alright with. A dark brown belt with a gun holster covers my waist, tan pants down to the gray combat boots finishes off the lower portion of my new ensemble. To top it all off, a bandana around my neck the same color as my coat and a wide brimmed flat dark brown cowboy hat covers my head.

"Holy… crap." I mutter in awe as I admire the completely new and overall badass looking attire. Once I'm down looking, I reach down to the holster on my right hip and check out its contents. It's no normal regular bullet gun because I'm pretty sure it's a blaster. It's roughly the same size as a glock but still a little blocky square, silver in color all around, a black strip on the left side with the barrel being extended by about 3-inches with a muzzle brake. "Woooowhahaha… this is… nice." I mutter as I admire my weapon.

*Crunch*

In an instant, I whirl around, my coat flowing in the wind as I train my sights on the nearby tree, both hands holding the blaster with my finger on the trigger. "Out from the tree. Right now." I order with deadly intent. My vision focuses on potential targets as I hear more footsteps but ultimately, its not needed as I spot a familiar pink paired girl carefully walk out from behind a tree. "Oh! Aelita. It's you." I quickly holster my weapon and take slow steps towards her. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay. I'm glad you decided to come here." She answers with a relieved tone and a smile. She was able to direct me on the proper commands to punch-in the computer to set some sort of delayed materialization function so I can have time to get to the scanners. I still wasn't sure exactly how to use the elevator so I just went ahead and used the ladder. She takes a moment to look me up and down. "Nice getup."

"Hehe, thanks." I reply and extend my arms to the sides, allowing myself another look. "It's not really something I'd wear in public but in a hostile environment where I have to help someone I think it fits." I say.

She giggles a little before adopting a more serious expression. What also feels like earthquakes as well as pools of red circles appear on the ground. "We better get going. We stay here too long and XANA's monsters are bound to find us."

I nod back to her. "Lead the way then." I gesture with my hand towards her. As soon as she begins running, I slip my bandana over my mouth and nose and follow after her. We begin running along the narrow grassy walkway in this forest place following these small earthquakes. Everything is quiet besides our rapid breathing and our footsteps so it gives me the chance to get a more accurate look at where exactly we are. Like I said, the place is forest but there are mostly narrow paths and crossways over what looks like a sea under us. Aelita made it very clear under any circumstances I am to not ever fall in, less I be lost forever. To be honest, that's probably something that should have been mentioned when she was telling me about the possibilities of injury or death, but I'm not angry. Just gotta be more careful.

"Oh no!" Aelita stops and cries out as we stop to see something moving towards us. "Kankrelats."

"Kang-what?" I ask confused at the name. Some small four legged things run up to us, about four to be exact.

"Monsters sent by XANA." She quickly explains to me.

I look at her oddly before turning back to the monsters and— "Ahh!" I groan as a headache hits me again. _'Still?!'_

"Watch out!" At Aelita's warning I quickly break myself from my moment to see the red eyes on their bodies charge up for something, all four of them.

At this point, to any gamer when your enemy is charging up, its never good. "Down!" I yell and quickly push her away from me. This in turn pushes me away from my standing spot and allows the both of us to dodge their barrage haphazardly. She falls behind a tree while I let myself fall to the ground. Without wasting the chance, I roll over while at the same time I grab my blaster pistol and take aim from the ground.

Five red blaster bolts shoot out towards the small enemy's, three going wide but two hit their mark and destroy them in small explosions. "Yes!" I fist pump in joy at my first kills. The last two begin charging up. "No!" I quickly roll on the ground as they pepper the ground where I just was and roll behind a tree opposite of Aelita. As soon as I get up, I push myself against the tree and look over at my partner to see her getting up and using her tree as cover too. "You alright?!" I shout to her over the laser shots pinning us down.

"Yeah, I am. Thanks." She nods to me and I nod back. However she quickly looks back to where we came from as another sound can be heard. "Uh-oh, we've got more company." She says and points.

True to what she says, two more kankrelats come sprinting towards us, right at our exposed backs. "That's not good." My comment is further accentuated by the original two enemy's hitting our covers.

"What do we do?" She asks worried. Not surprised since we're out in the open to the approaching enemy. I quickly look around for anything I can use but don't really find anything or more cover to help.

I groan at the only plan I come up with. "Aelita, listen! When I go out, follow behind and use your tree for cover to the new arrivals. On three!" She looks like she's about to protest but as the new enemy's get closer, she nods. "Three… Two… ONE!" I yell and bolt out of cover just as they fire at our cover. I crouch low to the ground as I move forward and with both hands I open fire with four blaster shots at them. Two miss but they explode and die to the last hits. Now free and clear, we both move into cover behind the trees just as the new ones fire on us. "Phew. That was close."

"Nice one! Your good at this!" Aelita compliments me, which I smile.

"Hehe, thanks." I reply, then flinch as some laser shots speed past us. "Stay down. I got this." As soon as they fire again, I move out of cover and fire once at them. My shot hits true now that I'm used to it and nails one of them, leaving only one. "Hm." I smirk and fire at the last one.

*SSSSSsss*

I freeze up as instead of a blaster bolt, steam flushes out of my weapon. "What the—!" I shout look at my blaster. The black strip on the side turns out to be a screen and it reads 0. "I'm out!" I shout in surprise at how I quickly ran out of ammo. However my moment of surprise costs me as the last Kankrelat nails me right in the chest. "Arhhh!" I yell as I'm thrown into the air and onto my back. Small electricity fizzles on my chest and it stings but it only lasts for a few seconds before I get back up. Just in time too because the monster fires again at me. I manage to dodge the laser and roll into cover just in time. "Great. This is just great." I groan and look at my blaster. "How am I supposed to fight without ammo?"

"Do you have any other weapons? Or abilities?" Aelita asks from across the other way behind her own tree. "What are those on your back?" She asks pointing to me. I look over my left shoulder to find something sticking out just above from behind my left shoulder. Holstering my pistol, I grab the item with my right hand to find it has a handle. Grasping it firmly, I pull it out.

*Shing*

And just like that, I find out I have a Kukri knife as my melee weapon. "Whoa." I murmur in awe at the sheen the weapon has. The virtual world does not skimp on the graphics because it looks beautiful with its silver mirror like blade and black colored handle. What's odd about this particular kukri is the fact that it's curved blade isn't really curved but more angled. Halfway down the blade where it would curve to give it its unique look, it's actually set in an almost complete right angle with the sharp blade coming towards me. "Huh… that's weird." I comment at the somewhat odd look but I quickly focus on more pressing matters as another laser impacts my tree. I glance towards Aelita before looking back at my knife.

An idea springs forth as I see my reflection in the blade. I slowly edge myself to the side where I poke the length of my blade out, angling it so I can see the kankrelat while remaining safe. It's not that far away from us, having moved and shot every now and then so if I don't do something soon, it'll be right on top of us.

*Clang*

"Arh!" I grunt as it fires again and nails my blade. I quickly retract and check for damage to the weapon. To my amazement, there is no damage done to it and the blade seems to have absorbed the shot no problem. "What?"

"Some of our weapons can block XANA's lasers." Aelita tells me. "Yumi and Ulrich's weapons can block and sometimes deflect their lasers. Your knife should be able to as well."

"Block?!" I say in surprise and disbelief as I hold up the weapon. "How am I supposed to purposefully block a laser shot heading straight for me?" I ask incredulously.

She simply smiles back at me. "In here, you can. Just trust me." I'm about to retort at how ludicrous that sounds… however how she says it, and the fact that she asks me to trust her… well, it works.

I let out a breath of air and nod at her. "Okay. Get ready to run, in case I fail." She nods at me but continues to smile, like she knows I'm not going to fail. I take a few more breaths of air and swing my blade around in my right hand, adopting a reverse grip. "Okay, let's do this." Psyching myself up, I prepare to charge the enemy. This last one may be a bit weak and only one but that knock back means I'll be a sitting duck for more hits. I have to avoid or block its attacks, or I fail. As soon as I hear it fire again, I make my move.

I sprint out from behind the tree and charge at the small but still deadly enemy. I hold my blade close to me as I sprint towards it, my coat flapping behind me as my focus is set on the monsters charging laser. The distance from me to it, I can't cross the gap and stop it from firing.

I have to take the hit. It fires straight at me and for a second, I expect the shot to hit me square in the chest. However its not a bullet and therefore not as fast. Whatever additional stuff this world has done to me, definitely increased my reflexes as well just like Aelita said this place would. My arm automatically comes up in front of me and I can actually where I am to move it in order to make contact with the laser.

When it hits me, it feels like a brick hits my arm from the impact, but it works. I block the shot, and close the distance. Like before my body does one more thing to finish off this enemy. "Takedown!" In almost a flash, I speed past the kankrelat, faster than humanely possible, with myself crouched low to the ground, my blade held forward ahead of me.

*…Boom*

Like the other monsters from before, it explodes in a small explosion. This snaps me out of my state and stand up. With one final flourish, I twist the blade in my hand a few times and return it to its sheathe on my shoulder. Once I do, I can't help but pull my bandana down and bring my hands up for me to stare at them, allowing me to relish in the adrenaline feel I just went through. "Wow."

"Nice job." I turn around to see Aelita walking up to me, a look of being impressed on her face.

"Yeah… yeah." I mutter, still in a little at what just happened in the fight. For the longest while I stay there looking at my hands before they clench tightly and the corners of my mouth rise, as well as my mood. "Nnnn HAHAAA!" I let out a loud cheer, startling the girl a little as I jump into the air in joy. "Holy crap! That was so awesome! I can't believe… I just did that! That was… Mm!" I happily shout and finishing off my giddiness with a small fake punch in front of me. "This was… man!" I shout and bounce on the balls of my feet. For so long at doing things half-gassed and being careful in the real world, the virtual allowed me to really plan, strategize and execute some amazing feats and it was totally awesome!"

"Wow. I've never seen someone so excited. The others definitely weren't this excited the first time they stepped in and fought." She tells me with a smirk.

When I've clamed down a little from my joyous high, I smile and walk closer to her. "Ahhh, but they don't strike as the type to be hardcore gamers like myself. Out there in the real world, I'm a little limited with my body," _'And my awkward social anxiety issues.'_ "But in here, in the literal virtual world," I say with a flourish of my arms, "I can do… sooooo much more." I finish with a grin. Playing videos games was my past time mostly and was gateway from having to go outside and keep me from getting bored. Being able to go in here and actually do stuff like this is just gravy for me. Of course, Aelita is still in danger of getting hurt and most likely dying so while it's fun for me, I have to be ready. I straighten up and adopt a more serious expression. "Alright, where do we go now?" I ask, since I kind of got a little turned around with all the fighting and cover change.

Remembering what we need to do, she looks around a bit until she points the way to go. "We still need to go—"

" **Aelita?"**

"Jeremy!" A new voice that sounds like it coming from all around us can be heard and Aelita wastes no time in replying with great joy and relief. "I'm so glad you're here." She replies, upwards I might add, before looking a little worried. "Are you alright? You don't sound good."

" **I'm fine."** Now that I think about it, the voice is familiar to the blonde-haired glasses wearing I remember seeing who was staying at the school too. He sounds a little labored too. **"Yumi and Odd are being scanned as we speak so you'll have backup soon, however I want to know how someone is next to you right now?"**

"Oh." I mumble as I look at Aelita, a feeling of awkwardness hitting me at having been caught. I remember seeing Aelita's little marker on the screen when I was sitting in the chair so now he must see me. Pretty impossible to hide then. "Uhhhh, heeey man. My names… Alex. Nice to… hear… you." _'Oh come one man, don't go stuttering now of all times!'_ I mentally yell to myself.

" **Alex? Wait, who are you? What are you doing there?! How did you get there?!"** He asks me a barrage of questions in a slightly demanding and somewhat frantic tone.

I wince a little at the quick questions before composing myself. "Relax man. We go the same school. I got forced here by that gas at school and Aelita here was calling for help… so I helped." I answer as quick and as best I can. He gives off a couple coughs on his end. "And from the sound of it, looks like you got hit by it bad."

" **Yeah, I did. XANA's definitely on the attack and we need to deactivate the tower as soon as possible. We'll talk about this later… Alex. Right now Yumi and Odd should be there."** Glad that I'm no longer being questioned, I let out a sigh of relief before some sounds can be heard.

Aelita grabs taps my shoulder and points up, showing the forms of some people slowly taking shape in a slight T-pose position. As soon as they become whole, they fall to the ground with only slight grunts, in a more graceful landing than what I did. They spawned with their backs to us so they don't see us instantly. "Yumi! Odd!" Aelita immediately gets their attention, making them turn to us. When they do I get a better look at the two of them and what they kind of look like. Yumi looks something like some type of geisha fan dancer and Odd looks like a humanized purple cat creature with giant paws and claws for hands, ironic considering the picture of a dog on his chest.

"Good to see you Aelita!" Yumi immediately expresses her happiness at seeing my companion but soon the two of them spot me. This puts Yumi on guard in an instant as she gets into a combat stance, even reaching behind her waist. "Who's this?" I reach over my left shoulder, ready to grab my blade if need be.

"Wait!" Aelita moves in front of me and stops the possibility of a fight happening with her arms up and pointed at them. "This is Alex." She quickly introduces me as she gestures to me when she steps to the side. "He came here and he saved me from XANA's monsters. Theirs definitely a tower activated and we could use his help to get to it. He's not a threat to us."

"Just a threat to the monsters looking to hurt her." I add, gesturing with my head to Aelita. Don't know what it is but now I feel pretty protective of the pink-haired girl. It may be her willingness to have me trust her earlier, as well as her to trust me to protect her, I'm not sure but still. Yumi and I continue our stand off with her hovering whatever weapon she has and I over my blade. She glances back between Aelita and I before with a sigh, she relaxes. I too relax myself and put my arms down.

"Hey. Good to meet you." Odd greets me with a smile and extends his paw to handshake. _'Well, a much friendlier introduction right there.'_ I can't help but think as I reciprocate his smile and shake his hand, a little awkwardly but still a nice gesture. "I'm Odd. So, what's your weapon? That knife?" He asks and points to the handle on my left shoulder.

"One of them." I answer and pull it out, showing the shining Kukri for him to see. I slip it into my left hand before pulling out my blaster pistol. "And this too, but I ran out of ammo during the fight and… oh." I begin to explain as I notice the zero I saw earlier has changed to a one. "Nice, it's regenerating my shots." _'Okay, so my blaster just needed to cooldown, albeit very slowly. Good to know.'_

"Nice!" He compliments me, which feels good after the moment of almost hostility from Yumi just a little bit ago. "And uhhh, what about that one?" He asks and points to my right.

"What one- Huh?" I begin to ask confused until I look over my shoulder to see some kind of block on me. Holstering my weapons, I reach up with my right hand and grab a small handle jutting out of the bottom of the box. As soon as I pull it off me however, that's when it begins to change. Small mechanical sounds can be heard as it unfurls and starts to resemble a rifle. A black stock comes out the back, a long barrel extends from the front with a Barret .50 cals muzzle break forming at the front, and finally a large scope lifts out from the top of the box, which is the receiver now that I see. It's mostly silver and blocky in shape except for the round scope and barrel. Like my pistol, it has a black strip on the side and it shows a two on it. "A two shot sniper rifle… alright then." I smirk at my new found weapon.

" **Uhhh guys? Introductions and weapon showings aside, can you please go deactivate the tower now?"** Jeremy suddenly chimes in.

"Sorry about that Jeremy." Odd tells him before looking at Aelita and I. "So, where to Aelita?" He asks her.

"The tower should be over that way." She points in the direction we need to go.

"Alright, let's get moving." Yumi says and with a nod from everyone we start running. I keep my rifle on me the whole time so I can be ready to fire should need be. It may only have two shots right now but its better than nothing. Plus I want to at least get a feel for it.

"So, how did you get here Alex?" Odd makes small talk as we run.

"You guys saw the purple gas, right?"

"Yeah?"

"I got forced into the sewer by that stuff and I found some skateboards there."

"So that's why one of them was on the ground!" Odd comments.

"Oh, sorry. I thought I put it back right. Must have fell." I shake my head and continue. "Anyway, I followed the tracks through the sewer, came out the top and I found the factory. I remember you guys mentioning something about a factory so my curiosity got the best of me."

"Heard us? Wait, were you spying on us?!" Yumi suddenly stops and looks angrily at me.

' _Oh crap. Probably shouldn't have mention that part.'_ The rest of us stop as well and look back to her, me being especially worried at her renewed hostility to me. "I-I-I didn't mean too! I-I just happened upon you guys and accidentally listened in!"

"Uhhh Yumi I don't think this is the time to—"

"No Odd, I wanna know why this guy was listening in—Puah!" Just as she points an accusatory finger at me, a red laser shot flies over my shoulder and impacts her in the chest.

"Yumi! Arh!" Odd lets out a strangled cry as another one nails him too.

My body quickly moves as I pivot on my feet, barely avoiding the shot meant for me but instead I roll myself onto Aelita and grab her. "Arrrrrr!" I grit my teeth as a couple shots impact my back.

"Alex!" Aelita cries out my name and quickly pulls me out from the open, my body having been momentarily stunned from the sudden hits I just took. While I lay myself against the tree we are using as cover, my hand gripping the barrel next to me, Yumi and Odd manage to move over and take cover next to us.

" **Knock it off you guys! You all just took some big hits and too many more and you guys are done!"** Jeremy scolds us. **"Odd, Yumi, you both just lost 20 life points. Alex, your down to 20. Anymore and your devirtualized."** Jeremy quickly informs us of our life pools. Kind of sucks we don't have any HUDs to tell us what our status's are but now's not the time to complain.

"Mm, roger." I grunt and stand to my full height when I'm able.

" **Work together already. We can't get hung up on who's angry at who right now. You guys just got ambushed and the monsters are blocking you from the tower. It's past them."** He tells us.

"He's right." Aelita agrees with him. "XANA's attack is still going on and we need to deactivate the tower as soon as we can."

Seeing as she's the one we need to protect above all else, Yumi's cross look melts away to understanding. She still looks like she doesn't want to be friends with me but a comrade in arms right now is what I'll take. "Alright, Jeremy how do we get past these monsters?" Yumi asks him while Odd and I place ourselves on the edge of the tree. I keep my rifle held close and ready to move out and fire while Odd returns fire. He seems to be shooting metal tip arrows towards them so that's his weapon.

" **The only way to access the tower is via a tree bridge. But it happens to be behind the monsters so your going to have to find a way around them."** Jeremy informs us. Yumi peeks out to survey the area ahead where we have to go. I glance out too to see the tree bridge he was talking about and one of the kankrelats strafing to the side slowly, trying to get a bead on us. We move back in before it can hit us.

"I might have an idea for blocking the monsters." She says and turns to us. She takes a look at me and scowls a little before calming down. "You two take care of Aelita." We nod and get ready to move but Yumi quickly grabs my arm, forcing me to stop and look back at her, to be greeted by a serious and cross look from her. "Protect her, understand? Nothing else matters."

"… Yeah, yeah I got it." I remove her hand from my arm and move away to the others without a friendly look to her. While I admit I understand her caution towards me from earlier, I'm starting to become annoyed with her outright distrust. Now's not the time for that.

"Laser flash!" Odd suddenly shouts and sends an arrow flying right into one of the monsters trying to flank us. This breaks me from my thoughts as Aelita and I smile at him at his quick reaction. "C'mon." He waves for us to follow and we do. While we head back and around to head for the tree bridge, Yumi is staying to do whatever she's going to do against the monsters. Their may be only two and small but their close proximity could fell us pretty quickly. When we stop behind another tree and get ready to move, we watch as she begins to glow and emit some sort of aura, as well as pressing her hands to the sides of her head.

"What is she doing?" I ask the others. Before they can answer though, I notice a large rock nearby begin to shake and shudder. Similar to the glow emanating from Yumi, it shudders a bit before slowly beginning to lift up and towards her. "Oh, telekinesis. Nice." I mutter. From the way how she's concentrating, it shouldn't be too hard to figure she's the source of the floating rock heading towards the slowly approaching enemy. Ever so slowly, the rock creeps through the air towards them and just as one of them walks around the tree, she drops it.

As soon as she lets it go, it falls and completely crushes one of them. With the distraction set and one of them taken out, the three of us begin running towards the tree bridge while Yumi tries to take out the last one. Keyword 'try'. She jumps onto the rock and pulls out a Japanese fan before hurling it at the monster. _'Huh, guess I was right about the fan dancer.'_ The last kankrelat wises up and dodges at the last second. This makes her fan ricochet off the ground and away from them, leaving her wide open for a laser shot to the stomach. The others look back in worry at their friend but I don't. She's taking the heat right now for us so we don't have to deal with, and especially not Aelita. Her injures means we can get her out of here, so we keep moving. We pass by the tree bridge and I quickly look back to see her take another hit.

That's the last of her because she slowly begins disappearing in white pixels, leaving a fading grid outline of her before she disappears entirely. I stumble a little at seeing her gone just like that and now I'm worried. "Uhh, Yu-Yumi's… gone." I hesitatingly tell the others.

"Don't worry. She was just devirtualized. She'll wake up with a headache at the scanners, that's it." Odd explains, slightly looking back at me.

"Your sure?" I ask, just to be sure. I know I heard the explanation before from Aelita but I'm still a little tense about it happening to me.

"Positive!" He happily and loudly replies while he looks ahead. His jovial attitude towards his friends sudden demise kind of puts it into perspective that I have nothing to worry about. That puts me a little at ease but I should still try not to get hit.

" **Guys! Hurry up!"** From the sound of Jeremy's urgent voice, something bad happened and we need to book it.

We soon make it to where the tall white tower with the glowing red aura around it is at but there's not a direct path to the tower on its elevated platform, surrounded by a moat. I was assured that I wouldn't be erased if I touched it so as long as I don't fall in the ocean further down, I'm good. Still, that doesn't stop the fact we're so close and still unable to reach the tower. "Alright, we're here. Now what?" I ask, seeing as theirs no clear path, I'm stumped on what to do. Odd is confused as well as he looks around but Aelita instead thinks.

"You two watch my back. I've got this." She tells us and walks forward before kneeling at the edge of the moat. Odd and I step back and do a quick look around the area to make sure we got nothing coming at us.

Soon what sounds like an angelic choir begins to sing. I look to see its Aelita doing this, and wow she sounds… beautiful. "Whoa." I mutter in awe.

"Neat huh." Odd says. I look at him as he gives me a smile at the display we see. "Aelita's basically been living here and tied to this place. Soooo with a bit of effort and concentration, she can do some pretty amazing things." Just as he says that, what looks like large trunks of trees begin rising out of the water, each one taller than the last like stepping stones and a small jumping path right to the tower. "Like that."

"Awesome. That makes things much easier now." I mutter with a smirk, then look to the side with a frown. "But they won't." Odd looks too and we see a kankrelat moving towards us from the tree bridge. From what I can tell, I think it was the one that took out Yumi.

"Don't worry. I got this one." He lightly holds his arm out and walks forward to get ready to challenge the monster. Seeing as how I'm one hit away from being taken out, probably for the better. I step back and move next to Aelita while she finishes setting up her path, rifle in my hands. "Yoo-hoo." Odd taunts the little monster once it makes its way towards us. Odd stands there staring at the monster with his arm pointed at it, ready to fire. I see the little monster turn towards Aelita, in which I move in between them and aim my rifle at it. It refocuses itself right back at him. "Sorry, but its not going to be that eas- Aah!" Before he can finish however, a laser shot comes flying out from the right and nails him in the side.

"Odd!" I yell his name and quickly look. Standing a little bit away, three more kankrelats are there ready to lay fire down on us. "Aelita!" She finishes setting up her path and turns to me as I aim my rifle. "Get moving! We'll hold them off!" I yell before I immediately shift my aim towards the new arrivals. In an instant my sight peers down the scope and I put one of them in my crosshairs. Firing once dead center, I look towards the next and fire again. Both targets explode in their small explosions. I smile at the quick kills but all of a sudden my senses tell me to move.

*Ching!*

Just as I lean back, another laser shot nails my rifle in my hands and sends it flying into the moat. I spot the original kankrelat Odd was going to fight aiming at me. "Hey you!" Thankfully, his voice yells out, getting the monsters attention. "We're not through!"

While he's back in action, I pull out my blaster pistol and I open fire on my opponent. The distance between us is long and is more suited for my rifle than my pistol. This much is evident as I fire three shots, that's it, and they all miss. It manages to dodge my attacks from this distance and is no worse for wear. "Crap." I mutter angrily and put my pistol away and go to grab my kukri. Or I would if I didn't see it shift its aim to Aelita, who's focusing on not trying to fall off the platforms. Then it begins charging up. "Aelita! Watch out!" She stops in surprise at the yell before freezing like a deer in headlights at the charging laser… then it fires. _'NOOO!'_ With a heave, I throw myself off the edge of the land right towards the path of the laser. "Graahh!" I yell in pain as I am hit square in the chest, the force landing me on the lower tree platform with my back to the monster. Just as sudden as the pain comes, it disappears in an instant. A coldness washes over me as I make the realization I'm finished.

And I'm angry.

"And I'm NOT DONE!" I yell and grab my knife just as my body begins to disappear from my feet. At the same time, my knife rolls in my hand until I am gripping the tip of the blade and roll over on the log before with one final yell, I throw my knife as hard as I can towards the monster. It curves off target slightly as it whips through the air, until it comes back around and finds its mark right in the center of the eye symbol on its.

I let out one final smile and close my eyes as I lose consciousness, as well as my body.

* * *

Late at night, both Jeremy and Ulrich continue to spray paint the wall in the picture the that they decided on. "I don't understand why insist on getting punished with detention again, Jeremy?" Ulrich asks the question. "C'mon, XANA's not going to reactivate this soon. You could give yourself a short vacation." He proposes to his friend but the look on Jeremy's face says differently. Despite already dealing with XANA's attack, Jeremy still decides to go through with the plan of spray-painting Jim's likeness on the wall, with a bit of change to it.

"Not as long as Aelita stays virtual. And this time, to tell you the truth, considering what we painted Jim can't be too angry." Jeremy says with a smirk as he stares at the new and improved picture they drew of their coach. Jim depicted as a king with a white gleaming smile seems like a good gesture. Of course, the two still defaced school property so they're going to get in trouble still, but hopefully not as harsh. "By the way, have you seen that Alex guy anywhere? I don't really know anyone here by that name." He asks Ulrich, who gets a conflicted look at the reminder of the intruder at the factory.

"No idea. From what you and the others said, we don't really have an accurate look at his face. Not even a last name." Ulrich lets his arm hang as he still has unsure feelings about the person who had apparently broken into the factory, especially Lyoko.

"Well, I'm sure he'll turn up. He did go into the scanners, so maybe—"

"Hey." A new voice speaks up. They turn around to see an unimpressive looking glassed wearing student standing next to them. Already Ulrich immediately recognizes the guy but doesn't do anything to show he remembers who he is from the teddy bear attack. Although he doesn't actually know his name. They both continue to stare at him in silence, unsure of what to do and hoping to not get caught too early from the plan their planning to enact. He simply stares at them for a silent few seconds before he stares at the wall, examining what they've been drawing before he looks down at a bag of spray paint cans before grabbing one himself. "Mind if I join you guys?" He asks with a small smile as he shakes the can.

They both look at each other confused but reluctantly agree. "Uhhh, sure." Jeremy agrees and gestures to Ulrich's right. "Try and make like a sunny background. You know to go with the shining teeth."

"Got it." He nods and begins spraying. For a bit, that's all they hear, just the sounds of spray cans spraying.

The awkwardness is thick enough it could be cut with a knife. "Alright. Who are you and why do you wanna get in trouble along with us?" Ulrich demands with frown as he stares right at the new arrival.

He smirks as he continues spraying. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you wouldn't recognize me without my cowboy attire and my guns, along with my Kukri," He turns to them with a full on smile, enjoying their moment of surprise. "Right?"

"Alex?" Jeremy says his name more of in a question but he nods nonetheless.

"Great to meet you guys." He offers a hand to Jeremy to shake, which he does, but when he offers to Ulrich, all he gets is a wary cross-armed look. He shrugs it off and continues spraying. "I had a feeling you might not recognize me during the whole virtualized thing. Anyway, since it looks like your still going to go through with getting in trouble, I figured I might join you. Is that alright?" He asks them with an unsure look. He was kind of grasping at straws when he decided to come out to them like this since they haven't exactly met him first.

"Uhh, yeah sure. Its okay. The more the merrier I guess you could say." Jeremy says, still unsure about the sudden appearance but not going to turn him away. While they go back to spraying, Ulrich looks between the two of them a few times before letting out a sigh and finishing up as well.

"By the way, later on can you guys explain to me why for the last few weeks I've been having some severe déjà vu moments?" he asks. They both stop the spray painting and look at him with wide eyes. He wasn't looking at them when he asked his question so he doesn't see them staring at him. However just the sort of feel their eyes on him, plus the lack of sounds of the other spray cans tips him off. He sees their stares and feels very uncomfortable. "W-what?" He asks confused.

They both stare at him in surprise at his question. Problem is, it was only since his entrance to Lyoko that allowed him to retain his memory from the time that passed during the Return to the Past. Yet he was just talking about how this has been happening for weeks before. A time before he went into the virtual world.

Before either of them can speak anymore about this, their cue is given as they hear angry shouts and a yipping dog. "Well, we are going to be here for vacation. I think we can take the time to get to know each other, and to get you up to speed on what's been happening." Jeremy answers with a smile as they watch Jim run past them, chasing after a dog. Soon though, he turns around when he notices students out this late at night past curfew.

' _I hope he likes being drawn a king.'_ Alex thinks with a smirk. It's obvious things are going to be very different from now on.

* * *

 **Okay, well, sorry everyone. This took waaaaaaaaaay longer than I first thought. I first thought I was going to do the previous episode but I realized that their wasn't going to be a lot that Alex was going to do. So I went ahead and just combined the two episodes together and finally give everyone the moment of him finding the Virtual world. A lot of other stories I read before always had the OC go through a ton of stuff and dozens of chapters before he finally entered the group so I decided to go ahead and cut to the chase. Plus, the way how the episode went just felt like a good opportunity for him to join them, sort of. Also a few more episodes in the future will give me some nice opportunity's to work with.**

 **Another problem came up that wasn't of my own doing and I don't have any control of whatsoever. Apparently some sort of hacker/virus/infection has been hounding authors here on Fanfiction and it was or possibly has been getting worse. Infecting people's accounts, changing their bio's, forcing backup emails into our account so they can jack it with a simple password reset, that sort of stuff. Apparently, you simply needed to mouse over or go into a persons profile and your account may get infected too. A couple reddit posts already has the information on just what's happening so if you want to check it out on what exactly is going on, simply google searching: "ALERT: Do Not Check Any User Profiles On FFN" or "WARNING: DO NOT CHECK USER PROFILES ON FFN" will get you to a couple posts that detail and explain it. It's pretty scary stuff that seems so simple for everything to go to hell in a handbasket so quickly if you're not careful.**

 **Reviews:**

 **MerlockVonBaron:** Drawing out his addition to the Lyoko warriors was not something I want to happen, so yeah not waiting long for him to join was what I was going for. As for Sissy, not really a priority for me to do, especially since I already have the general idea of how I'm going to go about this story. Adding Sissy to the team… that would just be a major overhaul that would go against what I had planned. Sorry. Hopefully I'll still make you things interesting for you to read.

 **xXSpades231Xx:** I do what I can. This story was on my mind for awhile, as you noticed, and just felt like go ahead and going in. For pairings, not really anything coming to mind. The list of potential characters are kind of sparse to be honest. We'll see how things go though. Alex's impact right now is currently a little on the low side but very soon he'll have more moments for him to shine and really show his talents, and true feelings. As for how Aelita is, I'll do what I can but to be honest I'm still going to keep things somewhat close to the show itself so exactly what your asking, we'll see.

Anyway, thanks for the questions and compliments. Hope I continue to make things fun and amazing.

 **Guest:** Patience. I'm not stopping anytime soon. Just… takes me awhile. Sorry about that.

 **Just so you all know, from now on I'm going to be responding to reviews solely here instead. If you want to ask a quick question or you yourself just want the answer to, PM me instead.**

 **Thank you all for your patience. Hopefully the issues that Fanfiction has been having is resolved but I'm still worried. I'm going to continue posting my work here on this site but I do plan to share my work to my other accounts on other sites.**

 **Under the same name Vendicor, I will have accounts on the following sites: Ao3 (Archive of Our Own), Quotev, and FictionPad. Hopefully I won't ever have to switch to any of those sites full time but just in case should the worst come to pass or I drop out of contact, those sites will be some places you might find me or inquire more.**

 **Anyway, thank you everyone, go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish, but most of all, have fun reading and have a great day to each and every one of you.**


	4. 4 Log Book

Virtual worlds, crazy computer programs, a girl trapped in the virtual world. It's a short list but that's pretty much the gist of what I learned. The factory is some sort of place that harbors a technologically advanced system that houses Lyoko, a virtual world comprised of various different climate locations, forest, ice, desert and mountain being the ones that the fighting and towers take place in. When I first helped Aelita, the others and all in Lyoko I was pretty overwhelmed by the feelings and stuff for my first time there. The new look, atmosphere, heightened senses and look of the place just made it all so much more surreal, especially being the avid gamer I am.

Speaking of the others, some of them have been somewhat chill with me knowing and being kind of part of their group now. Jeremy was a little wary at first but seems to warm up to me considering I was the one that was able to help and keep Aelita safe during the last fight with XANA. Aelita herself is happy with me being able to help as well, which is obvious considering I saved her at least a few times during my first time being there, is on board with me as part of the group. Odd is cool with the idea of me being there as well and hasn't really done anything to counter my presence or tried to dissuade me from being there, which is awesome and has been a relief, even though his outgoing attitude is definitely something I'm not entirely comfortable with.

The other two however, are a different story. Ulrich has been… somewhat alright. He hasn't gone out of his way to make me feel uncomfortable and all but he has been keeping an eye on me. He's more neutral to me but I've been seeing him stare at me at times, most likely to keep an eye on me and make sure I don't do anything or stupid, like spill the Lyoko and XANA secret. Yumi though is not as reserved. I've seen her outright glare at me without hiding at and can even feel the disdain in her voice if we were to hold a conversation or join in one. She doesn't like how I joined the group apparently, or kind of snuck around, heard them and pretty much snuck my way into the factory without any of them knowing. I think she would like it if they were to use the 'Return to the Past' function they have to wipe my memory of the day I found out and leave me blissfully unaware of everything. Unfortunately for her though, since I already placed myself in Lyoko before they had a chance to find out, this means that I am now immune to the RTTP and I remember everything.

I can understand the secrecy and all, even doing what they can to 'screen' in a way anyone that would find out about the supercomputer and mess everything up. Since I kind of went around them completely and forced myself a little into their group, that's as good a guess as any for her anger towards me. It's not like she's going to straight up tell me why she doesn't like me.

Either way, besides those things school has been pretty alright as of so far. Nothing out of the ordinary has come up and required us to go to Lyoko so the days have been uneventful. I've been trying to hang out with the others and get to know them more, since we'll more than likely have to hang out a lot more in case of an attack and all.

But things are still tense for me with everyone so its slow going for now. Right now I'm hanging out with Jeremy and Odd by a tree outside the cafeteria after having finished eating. Jeremy opted to skip gym again in order to continue to work on the materialization program that we are going to use to bring Aelita to the real world. It's not as easy bringing her to the real world as it is the rest of us so he's got to work as much as he can in getting her here.

"Hi Yumi!" Jeremy says, making Odd and I look at our female friend walking up to us, having most likely finished class.

"Hello." She smiles warmly at the two of them barely passes a glance to me, nor the smile. Like I said before, slow going. "Hey look over there. Its Ulrich." She gets our attention on something very important. We look out from behind the tree to see something surprising. Over near the cafeteria entrance we see none other than Ulrich and much to our surprise next to Sissy. Now I may not have been a part of this group for a while but even I know that's a weird sight to see.

"But-… what's he doing with Sissy?" Odd asks out loud, even though none of us really know the answer. As I try to look closer, I notice its definitely not a good situation for Ulrich what with his glum and dower look he has. Something else besides liking her is what's keeping him there.

"Hmmm, let me try something." I say before strapping my backpack on me. "Go ahead and call out to him. I'll be back." I propose and begin casually walking towards the cafeteria wall, my head aimed low.

"Hey Ulrich!" As soon as I make it to the wall, I begin walking towards the weird couple slowly, acting as inconspicuously as I can until I start to hear them.

"Hey that's blackmail. Why do you expect me to give into that?" I keep myself stone faced neutral as I hear this somewhat alarming news but focus on walking and listening.

"First of all because its hard to say no to a pretty girl like me." I stop past them as Sissy says and crouch down before pulling my backpack in front of me, acting like I'm rifling through it to get something. "And second of all I'm not going to give you any choice." She playfully tells him, making it so that he won't have much in terms of being able to get out of this easily.

When she starts giggling and pulling him away I get up, turn around and begin heading towards the others but not before giving Ulrich a subtle nod. Having been adept at trying to avoid people all the time, and making myself as little as possible when it comes to people looking at me, it was relatively easy being able to walk by like that without drawing their attention to me.

"Well?" Yumi impatiently asks as I walk up.

"What's going on?" Jeremy asks. I let out a sigh and run my hand through my hair.

"They were pretty vague but it has something to do with blackmail." I tell them what I know, which isn't much but blackmail is the main thing we need to know.

"Blackmail?" Odd asks confused.

"Yeah, seems like Sissy's got some dirt on Ulrich and is holding it over his head. What exactly? You'd have to ask him."

"This isn't good." Yumi states.

"No kidding." Jeremy agrees, along with nods from the rest of us. Suddenly the bell begins to ring, signaling its time for us to get to class now. "Alright, Odd and I have class with those two. You two get to class while we find out what's going."

"Alright."

"Yeah let's get—" I begin to say but Yumi already about faced and left to class, leaving me standing here awkwardly. "Huh, she doesn't like me much does she?" I sarcastically ask out loud.

"Well, you did kind of sneak your way into our group without our consent." Jeremy says. I hum in agreement.

"Ahh don't sweat it!" Odd pats my back as he tells me with a wide smile. "Just give it some time and I'm sure

"Yeah." I mutter hopefully. _'One can hope.'_ I sigh and signal for us to begin walking. "C'mon, let's go ahead and get to our classes." They nod along and we all get going.

* * *

Once classes were done, Jeremy gave us the run down on exactly what was going on with the blackmail. Turns out Sissy snuck in Ulrich and Odd's room and made off with Ulrich's diary. While having your secrets revealed to everyone at school is not something that anyone would want, the fact that he also has mention of Aelita, Lyoko and XANA in said diary means we cannot let anything in it be revealed by any costs. Right now Sissy is focused on being with Ulrich rather than finding out exactly who or what those people and things are so we have some time to find the diary.

Yumi wasn't happy at all that and she especially wasn't happy with being stuck with me as we ransacked Sissy's room. Since Odd, Ulrich, Sissy and a bunch of the other students or going on a shuttle bus to the pool, that'll give us time to find the diary while Jeremy goes to check on Aelita.

"Ughhhh, nothing. Find anything?" I groan from my lack of luck in finding what we need from behind her table and ask Yumi. She doesn't answer and instead lets out a frustrated sigh and lie back on her bed. Before I think on where else to look, her eyes widen and she grabs the pillow.

"Ah-haaa." Yumi opens up an 'I Love You' heart shaped pillow from Sissy's bed and pulls out a diary. "Bingo." She happily states with closed eyes

"Ulrich has a pink diary?" I question.

"Huh? Oh… this is not Ulrich's handwriting." She locks closely at the book and its true that that's not what we are looking. She begins flips through a few pages and gasps a little. "It's Sissy's." I come close and lean to the side to see what she's reading. She's so focused on the diary she doesn't shoo me away from looking. We're even more surprised at the one page that has Ulrich's picture in it. _'Oh wow. Definitely not Ulrich's.'_

" _I'm tired of his acting as if I don't even exist. I can't stand standing watching him pay so much attention to Yumi. So, while he was in the lunch room I went looking around. I just wanted a picture of him,"_ The diary entry says. _'Wow, stalker much.'_ Despite that I keep reading along with Yumi. _"But I found something much better than that. Now he can't possibly turn me down. I know what I'm doing isn't nice but it's the only way I can get him to stop ignoring."_ It ends.

"Of all the nasty things." Yumi says in disgust as she slams the diary closed.

I lean away and let out a short sigh. "Huh, well at least she knows what she's doing is wrong." I comment.

"And that makes what she's doing better?" Yumi crossly asks, not liking that I'm somewhat sympathizing with Sissy of all people.

I shake my head at the question. "Not at all. At the very least now we have some dirt on her. You know, fight fire with fire?" I propose with a smile. While finding Ulrich's diary would end this whole debacle right then and there, finding Sissy's diary and counter blackmailing her would probably make her think twice before she does something like this again in the future.

"That's good. C'mon lets get out of here before someone comes by and realizes we're not supposed to be here." I nod at Yumi's suggestion before we quickly exit Sissy's room and begin heading out of the building, unsure where to go but for now just putting some distance with our stolen package in tow. One quick call to Jeremy later to get him up to speed on what we found. Soon enough, we stop in front of the entrance to the girls restroom. Yumi quickly pops her head in and begins looking around before stepping in turning back to me.

"Stay there and don't move. I'm gonna make the call." She crossly tells. Despite the slight anger laced in her tone, I nod nonetheless and step away before I'm not next to the door. Afterall it would be weird, creepy and downright put me in a negative light if I'm standing outside the girls room. I lay my back against one of the pillars of walls and stare out into the sky. That's all I pretty much do, just act nonchalant so I don't bring attention to myself.

I don't have to wait long as Yumi soon exits the girls restroom.

"You got something?" I ask when Yumi steps out.

Despite her suspiciousness to me, she smirks and holds up Ulrichs diary.

I smile. "Nice. Let's go before someone sees us." Without wasting any time, we go ahead and begin running back to the dorms so we can drop off Ulrich's diary at his room. I don't know what she did with Sissy's but I don't really care about that right now, just focusing on our friends as of this moment while we run.

"Yumi? Alex?" We are stopped from our running as someone calls our names. Over in a nearby classroom, we spot one of the teachers looking at us through one of the classrooms. "What are you doing there?"

We freeze up and look at each other before looking at him. "Just some last minute studying sir. We're heading back now." I quickly inform him and we start running without waiting for him to reply or question us anymore. We make back to the boys dorms without any problem on our part and we drop off the diary. "Perfect. That takes care of that. What should we do…?" I begin to ask but as I turn to her, I notice Yumi already walking away. "Yumi!" I call out to her in slight surprise but she just keeps on going without bothering to look back at me. I am saddened to see her ignoring me yet again, even though we worked together to help one of our friends being blackmailed. I let out a sad sigh and begin walking back to my room. _'Man, I was really hoping that by helping out with this I could at least start to get in good with her and diminish her anger towards me. I don't want her and Ulrich to be angry with me for kind of forcing my way into their group… but they are. How do I make it so they stop?'_ I wrack my brain around that as I let out a steady sigh and step into my room, alone as usual. I just go ahead and lay on my bed as I usually do when I've got nothing better to do and maybe catch a few Z's.

* * *

My intended nap doesn't last long as I suddenly find myself awake and alert via the ringing of my phone. "Hello?" I ask answering it.

"Alex, it's Jeremy."

"Jeremy?" I sit up fully now completely awake as I remember that Jeremy was at the factory checking things up with Aelita as a precaution. "What's going on?"

"Not good that's for sure. XANA has activated a tower. I need both you and Yumi here ASAP. I already called her and she's on her way."

"So am I. See you soon." I reply firmly and shut off my phone. I tear my door open before I begin running towards the sewer entrance. Since a good number of the students are on that bus heading towards the pool I'm not stopped or run into many students as I go so I make great time in heading to the manhole. Odd and Jeremy were nice enough to inform me of this alternate route we can take to the sewer and for eventually towards the tower. As I come within range of the manhole, I spot Yumi beginning to climb down it already. She is no less pleased at seeing me as I run up.

"You know you don't have to come. I can handle this myself." She glares at me as I slow myself up to the manhole.

"True… but I don't think we should take any chances. You can try to stop me if you want but that would mean less time to help Aelita." I point out to her with a smirk. She's still suspicious of me and doesn't do anything to hide her animosity towards me as usual but my words are hopefully logical enough that she doesn't literally fight me from helping.

She doesn't reply, she just simply scoffs and continues climbing down the ladder towards the bottom followed by me. When we hit the bottom, she grabs a skateboard while I grab mine. Unlike Odd, Ulrich and Yumi, I have my own little scooter like Jeremy there as well for me since I'm not really a skateboard guy, nor have I ever ridden one. Regardless, we pass through the sewer as usual before coming to the other manhole entrance leading to right outside the factory. Unlike the first time I came here, I actually grab one of the chains like Yumi does and swing and slide myself to the bottom. I grip the chain harder than I would have liked but hopefully soon enough I'll get used to it and be more confident in the swinging. We don't waste time as we enter the elevator and begin heading to the supercomputer. The door opens to us seeing Jeremy at his station frantically pressing buttons on the keyboard.

"Hurry in the scan! The situation is getting worse." Jeremy informs us urgently. Without any debate, Yumi hits the button for the scanner room and we descend to it before entering the scanners without a word.

* * *

With a grunt, both Yumi and I land on the ground in the desert sector. I haven't been able to properly explore the other sectors besides the forest like my first time. I was told there are a few other sectors that we could go to should the need arise: the desert, the mountain, and the polar region as well. Don't know if they actually convey the same types of weather they might have as the names suggest but considering being in the desert I am now I'm not sweating like crazy in the getup I have now, I wouldn't worry.

"Yumi! Alex!" Any moments of contemplation or wondering where we should go is interrupted by the voice. We turn to see a familiar pink haired girl running and waving to us. "I'm so glad to see you both."

"Glad to see you too Aelita." Yumi greets her with a smile and a head nod.

"Same here." I comment as well before we feel the vibrations indicative of XANA. "And it definitely looks like we're all needed aren't we?"

"Your right." She agrees with me and points away from us. "A towers been activated and we need to get to it."

"Lead the way." I reply as I pull out my rifle. We begin sprinting as fast as we can towards the best route we can take to the activated tower. Going in a direct path is not really an option as while a large majority of the desert sector looks to be open field, I do see plenty of small islands, broken pieces of land, narrow paths, rocks, cliffs, ledges and the likes. Aelita explores these places for a living so she's our guide. We come upon a small ledge leading to a lower section of land with a slanted flat rock connecting the two. I slide down the rock incline first, my rifle up and aiming around in case of any hostiles waiting for us. When I see its clear, I wave for them to come down. Yumi slides down first before Aelita follows. "It's clear for now at least."

"Yeah… too clear." She mutters in suspicion as she looks around. "No wait." Just as Aelita begins to move to guide us, Yumi throws her arm out in front of her, stopping her. "This is too easy." She pulls out her fan and cautiously steps forward, ready to throw and fight if need be. "Coming all this way without seeing even one monster? There's gotta be a trap." She's right. Since we got here, we have not encountered a single monster or anything hostile towards us at all.

I pull up my rifle and aim around, using the scope to examine things from a distance. "As much as I hope your wrong, there is a high chance you are right. No way XANA would leave the tower unguarded without some form of protection or guard." I contemplate on what we could face as my sweeps show nothing in the distance. My aim is thrown off by a gust of wind hitting me. I grunt from the strong breeze and turn around. "What's that?" I ask the others as I spot something behind us on the piece of land we were on before. They look as what looks like a giant swirl of dust, sand and dirt begins to get bigger and bigger.

"A sandstorm!" Aelita calls out.

"You have that here?" I ask in disbelief at seeing an actual sandstorm here in this place… and coming right towards us. "Uh-oh."

"It's a tornado." Yumi says and not wanting to get sucked up we all book it as fast as we can away from the force of nature. "Jeremy! We got a problem here!" She informs our observer.

" **Make that two. Theirs a monster behind you!"**

"What?!" I ask in disbelief before glancing backwards but all I see is the tornado on our tail and gaining even though we've made a few turns. _'Actually, that should be the first indication considering it is following us.'_ "The tornados chasing us! Is it a monster?!" I ask over the sounds of the tornado following close by.

"That's stupid!" Yumi scolds me but doesn't stop her running.

"No its not! If anything, the monster may be using the tornado as cover." Aelita informs me.

I chance a glance one more time back before grunting in frustration. "Well that's just great." I mumble in annoyance at the enemy we can't see. We can't keep running forever as soon enough the tornado has overtaken us, batting us with dust, dirt and sand all over. We're forced to slowly walk with our arms in front of us in an effort to keep the debris out of our eyes. I've had to bring my bandana up to cover my mouth and nose and I can't even properly hold my rifle up as its mostly being held to cover my eyes from the dirt. "This isn't good. We're sitting ducks out here." I mumble to myself as I'm pretty sure they probably wouldn't be able to hear me over the storm. We know there is a monster here in the storm itself but with practically zero visibility we are completely blind to attack or dodge its attacks. Pretty sure we won't be able to hear it either. _'Not good. Very not good.'_

" **Yumi, Alex, becareful at the ridge. If Aelita falls into the digital sea she'll be lost forever!"** Jeremy reminds us. Not that we really need a reminder on the dangers of the digital sea but the ridge warning is welcome. Afterall we're still having trouble moving and seeing in this blaster storm. **"Becareful in front of you! It's a Megatank."**

"In front?! But it was behin—"

*PEEEERRR*

The sound. A massive sound of energy sends warning signs through my entire body at the sound whatever the monster is makes. Another indication is the massive wall of red light that pierces through the storm and heads right to us. Yumi tackles Aelita out of the way while I dodge roll in avoidance as well. As soon as we try to get back and try to attack, the light disappears and the monster is gone once again. We run as fast as we can from our previous position to put as much distance between us and whatever the Megatank was.

"Whoa!" Yumi suddenly comes to a stop as the ground begins to shake. Just in front of her the ground splits apart and pulls away from us, causing Yumi to almost fall in.

"Yumi!" I call out in worry and move forward, quickly grabbing one of her flailing hands and pulling her back from the edge until she's stable once again. "Close one. You okay?"

"Mm!" She doesn't give me a verbal confirmation she is, just a simple grunt and jerking her hand from mine. Any means of replying on my part about her attitude doesn't even enter my mind as I notice that all of the land around us being broken apart and pushed away from our own bit of land under us. "XANA set a trap for us."

"Heck of a trap." I comment quietly to myself as I see we are absolutely stuck where we are with no visible means of getting to the larger pieces of land that split off. "Well… what now?" I ask out loud seeing as how I have no idea on how we're going to get out of here. No one really answers me directly, but the answer to my question comes in the form of Aelita kneeling and setting herself in some type of meditation pose and letting out an angelic moan in concentration. Similar to how she did back at the tower with Odd the first time I was in the forest sector, a rock bridge begins to form on our small island and begins to connect us to the main land. In no time at all its complete and we have our path. "Nice one. Awesome to see WE have someone who can manipulate the land here." I think I see Aelita blush at the compliment.

" **Good work Aelita!"** Jeremy praises her as well and we get moving. Not wanting to get caught in another one of XANA's traps we run as fast as we can to hurry up and make it to the tower and be done with all this.

*PEEEERRR*

"Arhhahhh!" In an instant, a massive wall of red light hits Yumi in the back and almost hits me too. I jerk away from the attack and move closer to Aelita as we watch in horror at Yumi being knocked down.

"Yumi!"

"Yumi!" Both Aelita and I cry out at our teammate being hit so hard. I go to move towards her and help but the same sound that accompanied the laser pierces through the air again. I barely have time to move out of the way before the attack rushes right past me, tearing my rifle from my hands and hits Yumi yet again before she can even get up. "Yumi." I breathe her name in worry as I take several steps back at how close I almost got hit too. The realization of just how bad it is to be hit by that thing is very evident and no laughing matter as I watch Yumi's body dematerialize.

"Oh no!" Aelita exclaims in shock at us watching our friend get taken down so quickly and easily.

"Oh… wow. She couldn't even fight back." I mutter in disbelief at just how quick that was. Only two hits and she's gone.

"We have to get out of here!" Aelita says and begins backing away. Hearing her snaps me out of it and begin following her.

"Ye-yeah. We do. We have to—"

*PEEEEERRR*

"WATCH OUT!" In the middle of me talking, the sounds goes off again and it takes my instincts to jump forward and tackle Aelita out of the way. The laser wall rushes past us just where we were standing before moving. "Move!" I yell and pull Aelita to her feet before ushering her forward. I quickly pull out my blaster pistol and begin shooting back at whatever that Megatank thing was. Much to my chagrin, my shots simply bounce off its armor like nothing. "Crud. Not a scratch. How do we take that thing down?" I ask out loud.

"It's weak spot is in the middle of it at the center. Unfortunately you can only hit it when its exposed, which is when it fires." My heart sinks as Aelita explains how to defeat that thing.

"Seriously? Great. That's just perfect." I grumble but don't stop in our running and putting as much distance away from that thing as we can. The sandstorm is all but gone from us and we lose sight of the Megatank, which I am both thankful for and regret as not having seen that thing was exactly what took out Yumi so easily when our backs were turned. "Hold up. By that rock." I tell Aelita as we begin to pass by a large rock formation. We slow down close to it where I quickly sweep my blaster around behind it in case of any monsters hiding behind it. Thankfully we find none so we take the time to catch our breath after all the running we did. We keep the rock between us and where we were running from since that's where we know for sure the Megatank was. While Aelita sty in cover, I peek out from around the side and keep a critical eye around in hopes of finding the tornado or the Megatank. "I don't see the tank." I pull myself back and lay against the rock. "I both love and hate that." Aelita looks at me confused. "I love that I don't see it anywhere, but I hate I CAN'T see because I'm worried it'll sneak attack us again just like it cost us Yumi." A fighters a fighter. She may not like me and I'm starting to get a little annoyed at her attitude but having her here to help fight is WAY better than me going at it alone. I'm not prideful to a fault where it could cost us dearly. Aelita cannot have any chances taken.

"What do we do then?" She asks me.

I take another look around and still don't see anything. I let out a frustrated sigh as I pull back. "We have to get you to the tower, but I don't like the idea of moving out in the open when its just the two of us when we have no idea where the Megatank is. Or possibly any other monster for that matter."

" **Don't worry you two. Odd's just about there."** Jeremy suddenly informs us. I flinch a little at his sudden voice but it soon turns to relief at the knowledge we now have some backup.

"Well theirs that at least." I say with a smile, which Aelita mirrors.

We don't have to wait long as several seconds later we watch as Odd appears and lands on the ground easily.

"Aelita?! Alex?! Aelitaaa?!" The both of us sigh in relief at having some backup.

"Welcome to our world!" We wave to Odd as Aelita calls out to him, making him turn to us and smile.

I take a few steps forward when I stop as I hear crumbling rock behind me. Much to my surprise, I watch the floor beneath Aelita begin to split apart, throwing her off balance. "Aelita!" I call out in worry and move towards her as Odd sprints to us. Before she can fall in, I grab her hand and pull as hard as I can towards me. She's pulled to safety but I'm left slipping off the ledge instead.

"Alex!" Aelita calls out my name as my feet leave the ground. My arms slam hard onto the edge of the ground as I do everything I can to keep myself from falling the rest of the way and being lost forever.

"Hold on!" Before I can fall, Odd dives forward and quickly grabs my arm before I'm gone. "I gotcha." He says and quickly begins pulling me up. Aelita comes up and helps him help me up as well. We struggle a bit as they manage to pull me but eventually, I'm pulled up enough for me to swing my legs up and out of danger. I roll away from the edge a few times until I'm far enough away where I won't fall. I lay there on the ground taking a few deep breaths as the others sit on the ground next to me. "Okay… that was a close one." Odd says lightheartedly.

As much as I was close to falling, I can't help but share his tone, allowing myself to chuckle a little and smile. "Yep… thank you both." I thank them.

"I should be the one thanking you." Aelita tells me with sincerity.

My heads cranes to the side a little as I look at her confused. "Thank me? For what?"

This actually makes them confused as they look at each other before looking back at me. "Uhhh, because you kind of saved her." Odd points out and at Aelita.

"Oh yeah." I sit up and turn to them. "But, that's kind of going to be the norm between us all isn't it? We protect you Aelita no matter, right?" I ask them. That's kind of the thing that we had established when I first got here. While Yumi, Odd, Ulrich and I can get devirtualized and be transported to the real world, Aelita does not have that luxury so any hits or attacks meant for her we have to prevent or take with our own bodies if need be.

They glance at each other again before back at me. **"Uhhh people? Not to interrupt or anything but don't we have a tower to deactivate?"** Jeremy takes the opportune time to remind us of our crucial mission objective here.

"Oh man! He's right!" Odd jumps to his feet and offers Aelita a help stand. "We gotta get going before something bad happens to Ulrich and everyone on the bus.

"Crud!" I scold myself at getting caught up in the moment. I roll back onto my hands before pushing myself up onto my feet and standing. "Let's move." They nod and we run. Now that we're back up to a better state of strength, we make our way back in the direction of the tower. So far as we move we don't see or encounter anymore enemies for the time being but Aelita and I are on the lookout for anymore tornados and its Megatank.

" **Careful. Theirs a ridge."** We are forced to slow down and stop when we find that the ground begins to part way again, splitting the ground near us and halting our progress.

"Okay this is really getting old." I comment hatefully at the cut off path yet again.

Odd hums in agreement. "Huh?" I hear him mutter in confusion right after. As he does, the sandstorm that's been chasing us surrounds us yet again. Odd readies his arrows while I grab my blaster and ready myself the fight that's most likely going to come.

"Watch it Odd. Theirs a Megatank in this sandstorm but its hard to spot." I warn him as I strain my ears and vision to look for the enemy that's been hounding us all this time. It got the drop on us before and it cost me my rifle and Yumi without a chance for her to fight back. Letting it hit any of us again is completely out of the question. This time though, it seems it doesn't wish to do anymore sneak attacks on us as I can hear the rolling sound of the Megatank ahead of us. I try to think and come up with some form of plan on how to deal with that thing because I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the idea of waiting for it to attack first.

I go to aim at the enemy and get ready to fight. "Hey." Before that Odd gets our attention. We turn to him as he seems to be looking around for something until he stops. "I have an idea. Follow me." Before we can even debate on what his plan is, he grabs Aelita's hand begins running. Not wanting to be left behind with the approaching monster I follow after them and we begin running away from the sandstorm.

While we begin running I can hear the Megatank behind us as it follows, as well as the sandstorm too all around us. It's hard to tell exactly what it is that Odd is planning but it doesn't feel good as we begin make our way closer and closer to one of the ridges. "Odd! What are we doing?!" I ask frantically as he doesn't look to be stopping even though we are running out of ground to run on.

"Odd your out of your mind!" Aelita somewhat follows my example of questioning Odd's plan, or his actions at this point. Odd doesn't say anything and when we get close to the edge, he begins to spin both himself and Aelita around, using the momentum to launch her over the ridge before spinning himself over the ridge as well. I don't immediately jump as well and instead slide into a stop right at the end of the ridge and turn around.

"Alex!" I hear Aelita call out to me in worry at the rapidly approaching Megatank.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon." I silently mutter to myself as I watch the enemy roll towards me at a fast speed, watching and waiting for the right opportunity. _'Almost there… almost there…'_ I think as the monster makes no means of stopping and is fully intent on flattening me no matter. _'NOW!'_ With a mighty heave I throw myself as hard as I can to the left just before the enemy hits me. As soon as I hit the ground, I turn around and look where I just was and to my immense relief I don't see anything there. A few seconds later a massive spire of light and floating water I think shoots out from through the ridge gap. My plan worked and the Megatank went off the edge and into the digital sea. _'So that's what happens when you fall in? Heck of a way to let everyone know you fell.'_ I sigh in relief regardless and let myself stay laying down and propped up on my elbows. Pretty sure I hear Jeremy let out a long whistle of relief too. "You know Odd, that was a lot simpler than the throw and jump you did!" I can't help but call out to him from my spot on the ground while keeping the smile on my face too.

"True…" He begins to say before looking off to the side and then back at me. "But then we'd still have to cross it in order to get to the tower!" He finishes saying and points. Off in the distance on their side of the ridge gap, I spot the activated tower.

"Ohh… okay then." I push myself up onto my feet and dust the nonexistent dust off me. "Alright, get going Aelita! Looks like your all clear."

"Right! Thank you both." She thanks both Odd and I and begins running off post-haste.

"Well, that was something." I can't help but comment to Odd as we wait for Aelita to deactivate the tower.

"Yeah, it sure was. Good work protecting Aelita before I got here." He compliments me. I wave him off.

"Aaahhh, I barely did much. I mostly had us hunker down and wait for backup and that's about it." I tell him.

"Still, just making sure she was safe was a good move still."

"Thanks." We lull into a small silence as we continue to wait. "Do you think we made it in time?" I ask, in reference to XANA's attack in the outside world.

"I hope so. If we didn't…" Odd doesn't finish his statement and he doesn't need to. Already the tower loses its red color and the whiteness from the Return to the Past function activates. We can just hope we made it in time.

* * *

"You think he got it?" I ask out loud to the other occupants in the room.

"Well, we know Sissy's waiting outside with a smug look right now ready to blackmail Ulrich. So I'd say she probably already put it in her hiding place, which Yumi knows about." Jeremy points out.

"So all she needs to do is grab it, hand it to Ulrich and bye bye blackmailing Sissy." Odd adds with a smirk and a hand wave at the end to accentuate it.

"That'll be a relief." I say. Right now Odd, Jeremy and I are waiting in Ulrich and Odd's room so we can learn at once if we were successful in preventing Sissy's trick. While Yumi went to go get his diary and bring it too him, we are just here waiting for his return. After we hunkered down at wait we eventually heard Sissy place herself just in front of his door and wait for him so she can start the blackmail, which as we are hoping is going to be pretty unsuccessful.

Only a few minutes later we hear voices on the other side of the door and it opens soon after. We all look up expectantly to see a grinning Ulrich hold up his diary.

While Jeremy claps at the avoided blackmail, I smile and give a thumbs up. "Yeess!" While Odd jumps in joy as well.

"And that's another problem averted." Jeremy says with a smirk.

"That's a relief." I comment. "XANA's already dealt with for now and now having Sissy off your back is going to be good as well."

"It sure is. Hey Jeremy. Speaking of problems…" Odd begins to say then gets the other guys attention. Probably to talk about some math problems or something like that while we're here.

"Hey Alex." Ulrich calls to me. I look at him and notice that he looks… awkward about something, seeing as how he's not looking right at me and rubbing the back of his head. "I… just wanted to say, thanks… and I'm sorry."

"Hm? Sorry? Sorry about what?" I ask.

"You know, for being angry and suspicious of you a lot. I haven't exactly been that good with you and I wanna apologize. You helped Aelita when the rest of weren't there to help without any obligation on your part, and I wanna say thanks." Ulrich sincerely tells me.

I smile and nod at him. "No problem Ulrich. I know why you've been suspicious or even angry of me, but I can assure you that I have no intention of doing any harm to you guys, the computer and especially Aelita."

"That's good to hear. Hearing it right now being put into words, after you helped me, feels right, you know?"

I smirk with a nod. "It does. So," I hold out my hand to him, "Friends?"

He returns the smile and takes my hand, shaking it. "Friends." I got to admit, hearing him actually call me a friend is a load off my shoulders. "Good to have you aboard."

"Thank you, Ulrich. You have… no idea how much of a relief it is to hear you welcome me like that finally." He smiles in response to the grin I have. "Now… I just have to work on the only other person of the group that hates me even more." I don't have to say anything on who as they already know exactly who has had a problem with me.

"Yeah, she's something like that." He seems to be embarrassed by what he says, judging from the way he isn't looking at me and rubbing the back of his head even more so. "But she means well." He finishes saying when he turns back to me.

"Oh, I know." I mutter before sighing and looking at the door, thinking of Yumi and her suspicious way of me. "It just means I need to work harder in getting her to trust me."

* * *

 **Hey everyone. Apologies for taking awhile with this chapter. Can't really give you an excuse besides, games, other stories and such, as well as different bouts of writing inspiration that made me want to not write as much, or write even more than I usually do. It varys so sorry for the long time it took me to write this.**

 **As for the chapter itself, their really isn't whole lot to say about this. Alex just did what he could to be included and help out the others with their Sissy blackmailing problem. Besides a few comments here and there he really didn't do a whole lot and I apologize to that. Although of course this does give a bit more insight to his relationship with the others and his standing with them. Obviously he's still got some work to do in order to convince Yumi he'll be a valuable asset to the team. Afterall, later on in the show she always was wary of certain people when it comes to Lyoko and being a part of their group. Alex having pretty much thrown himself in with them when they're still relatively new to the whole Lyoko scenario as well just makes her wary of him. He's got Ulrich on his side now considering his help and now he needs to do something to convince Yumi. Easier said than done.**

 **Here are the reviews:**

 **Spades231:** Glad you liked his equipment appearance. For some reason when I was thinking of what gear and outfit that he could use to make him look badass I was also thinking of a pretty old game called 'Darkwatch' and Jericho's black attire was something that came to mind, then Fallout New Vegas's NCR Rangers uniforms, and for his weapons a bit of star wars mixed in. Glad you liked it.

He's pretty new to the group so yeah at least some of them will be pretty war of someone just suddenly thrown into the middle of their group, and out of all of the Lyoko warriors Yumi always was the most suspicious and cautious of the group, especially when it comes to new members.

 **ItsNotMe:** Glad I got your attention. Hope I can keep it.

Yeah when it comes to including the OC into the group most stories I've read draw it out for quite a bunch of chapters and in reality I just wanted to get him into the heart of the action as soon as I can.

That is just one of those mysteries that I already have planned out, but you my fellow reader and readers will have to wait for me to reveal exactly what's going on with him. Patience is what I ask, but it will be worth it I can assure you.

 **Pokemonking0924:** Yeah he's not an overtly outgoing type of person. Heavily introverted and just prefers to keep to himself whenever he can. However that doesn't mean he's heartless and will abandon someone in need so as you said, with his time being a part of the group, which he has to help as XANA poses a threat to pretty much everyone and himself if he doesn't do something, he'll slowly start to come out of his shell and gain the trust of the others.

Those are some nice ability ideas. Not going to spoil exactly what he's got going on but those are pretty good, and a little close in some cases.

 **Draconos13:** Happy you liked it all. I did what I could in making sure the stuff I chose such as his attire and weapons would fit and it sounds like I did a good job. As for his powers, they'll be shown soon.

I'll do what I can to keep the dialogue much the same as in show but that will require me to rewind moments here and there when I'm rewatching the episodes but it's nothing too bad. Still, thank you and I hope you continue to like it.

 **Guest:** Thanks.

 **SilverWolf1130:** Oh I will. Rest assured. It just… takes me some time.

 **Guest:** Awesome to hear. That's something I'm happy to have done for you. I've had those moments myself where I find a new cartoon, anime, tv show or whatever and just have to find a fanfiction story go along with it. Happy to hear mine is what caught your attention.

Glad you like his look. Unfortunately, I'm not a good drawer and I don't really know any artists or the right ones I can contact to commission a drawing. Still for the vest and coat the NCR ranger armor from Fallout New Vegas is what I was thinking of when I was thinking of his design so that's something you can look at for a general idea.

It may be a bit blank yes but that's to add to the mystery of him and who he is and why out of all the people, he still remembers certain events. All I ask is patience till all will be revealed for his past.

 **Okguy167:** That is quite an assumption to make and unfortunately, I have never heard of that character so I'm sorry to say your wrong on that assumption. The connection I can see you thinking that but its not. Good try though.

 **Thank you all for being here and reading my work. Sorry again for how long this took and hopefully I can get to the next chapter sooner than I did this one. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, don't, whatever you wish, have fun reading, but most of all, have a great day everyone.**


	5. 5 Cruel Dilemma

**Sorry for the episode skip but frankly I couldn't come up with anything worthwhile or notable in that episode for me to write. Plus I wanted to get to this episode much quicker than before. Hopefully this will make up for it.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Things have been going pretty well. That's about what I can say in recent time. Theirs not much more I can say. Although of course their was a potential harsh chemical disaster that we narrowly avoided.

I'll explain from the beginning. See, XANA's plan this time around was to take control of some communication and electrical systems, including those of the various trains going around the area. One train was carrying a large shipment of toxic chemicals and sent some trains heading right into each other. Obviously, we had to work quickly in order to make sure a catastrophe were not to take place. It was tough going but eventually we were to get everything fixed.

The fight in Lyoko wasn't exactly a cake walk either but we pulled through.

And yet again, Yumi still doesn't trust me. I let out a sigh of frustration at that unchanging status.

"Alex, are you alright?" My thoughts are interrupted from Aelita asking about me.

"Hm? Oh yeah. Yeah yeah. I'm okay. Just thinking about stuff." I try to assure her everything's good. "How's the program coming along Jeremy?" I ask, wanting to change the subject.

"I'm making progress." Jeremy says as he continues to type on his computer. "Just a couple of calculations to go and my devirtualization program will be completed.

"Nice." I comment at the good news.

"And… do you really think it's going to work Jeremy?" She asks him. "Do I have a chance to finally becoming materialized in your world and becoming somebody… somebody like you two?" She asks with increased ecstatic happiness.

"In time, I'm sure you will." I smile at her, voicing my optimism that we'll be able to get this set up for her.

"I sure hope so. Anyway, there's one thing I'm sure of. I've never been as close to the answer as I am now." He says. I'm glad we have someone smart enough to be able to interpret and understand some of this stuff no problem. I can somewhat but not on the level that Jeremy is at.

"Honestly, it's so hard to imagine we can be face to face in the same room, we can touch each other… even kiss."

' _Oh!'_ I don't voice it outloud but I am really surprised at the forwardness that Aelita is. Granted, she'll be experiencing all those things first hand for the first time in her life and all, but still. My face bears the look of surprise at that. Even Jeremy isn't immune as I can see him blush. _'Someone has crush.'_ I can't help but think as I smile cheekily.

"Uh yeah, that'd be uh… hmm… oh interesting I mean… well, I guess…" Jeremy stutters and crashes hard.

"Ohhhhh…"

"Shut up."

"Poh!" I couldn't help but voice my thoughts, which irritated Jeremy as he smacks me in the face with his pillow. I don't take offense to it. I deserved it.

"Anyway, now get ready. I'm starting the test program." He informs us. I pull the pillow off and lay it back down on the bed before leaning forward, watching the computer as Jeremy hits enter, starting the program. We both watch and wait with anticipation and hope as we see the avatar of Aelita appear on screen before the program begins to take effect, simulating what would happen if we try to devirtualize Aelita. Slowly the avatar begins to disappear with the beeps signaling the progress as it continues. I cross my fingers and bite my bottom lip as we wait for it finish.

Soon enough, it finishes… and it's a failure. Jeremy and I let out sighs and breaths of frustration at the failure yet again. "Nothing. I'm sorry Jeremy." I try to console the guy. He's always been the one to work on this program to save Aelita and its another failure.

"I don't get it." Jeremy frustratingly says as he places his head in his hands.

"It's not the end of the world." Aelita tries to make him feel better as well. "I'm sure Jeremy that one day you'll succeed."

"Aelita… I… I'm beginning to wonder if I'm up to the job." Jeremy beats himself up. "If I'm good enough for such a complicated program." He looks up and looks at me before turning towards Aelita, defeated. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired and jumpy you two. I better go and stretch my legs. See you later." Without another word he gets up and leaves. I don't move to stop him or anything as he leaves his room. I feel bad for the guy. He's trying his heart out in getting this program working. By getting it working, it means that this girl who has been trapped in the virtual world for who knows how long will finally be able to be free from that fake world and actually come to live in the real-life world. To experience everything that we can, not just hearing and sight. The touch you feel in the virtual world isn't really… touching. You can register you touch or grab something on Lyoko but it's not really the same feeling as on the outside.

And as a bonus, if we get Aelita out of there, then that means we can shut down Lyoko and be done with XANA once and for all. No more on edge all the time waiting for the next opportunity for that virus to cause some serious damage with whatever else its got planned. It'll be a big relief off our shoulders, allowing us to get back to our normal lives, and to get Aelita set up with a normal life. Will be hard to with a computer virus trying to maim us at nearly every opportunity.

I let out a frustrated sigh and rub my hand on my face. Soon I turn to Aelita. "I'm sorry we aren't able to get you out yet Aelita."

"It's alright. I've waited this long to leave the virtual world, I can wait a little longer before I can meet you all." She says with a sincere smile at the end.

I return the smile, happy to hear her understanding of the situation. "I'm glad to hear that. Let's just give Jeremy some time to rest. He's a smart guy. He just needs to take a step back, rest, and analyze the problem before throwing possible solutions at it."

"Agreed." She nods. "Well, I think I'm going to go and scout around for a bit. It's been awhile since we heard from XANA and I want to make sure theirs not an activated tower." She says.

I nod back at her. "Good idea. Feels like we're about due for a XANA attack. As much as I loathe the idea of another attack." I grumble. This causes her to let out a small giggle at my comment.

"Yeah. Don't worry. I'll check. See you later." She waves me away.

"See ya." I wave back and watch as the window to Aelita is gone, leaving only the screen belonging to the program Jeremy was working on. I sigh and let myself flop back onto the bed. "Well… that was unfortunate." I mutter to myself as I stare at the ceiling. I have some idea as to the computers behind it but in reality, I don't want to do anything to possibly mess this stuff up. Jeremy was the one that's always revolved his life around computers while mine was more of a past time. Jeremy was the one that found the super computer first and got it to work while I've only followed Aelita's instructions to get the virtualization program working and that's about it. Me trying to help would probably only delay him even more in his efforts. "But what can I do?" I wonder absentmindedly.

"Helloooo?" A voice says from the doorway. I jerk up and look to see Odd poking his head in. "Oh, hey Alex. Where's Jeremy?" He asks while walking in.

"Left. He hit a wall with the program so he went to clear his mind a bit." I answer.

"Well that's no good. Ooh! Candy." He immediately changes the subject as he spots the bag of candy on Jeremy's desk. He takes a seat and grabs it.

"Wait, Odd that's Jeremy's and he didn't say alright then just completely ignore me." I begin to say before realizing its futile as Odd gets some candy and immediately begins eating some.

"Oh come on man." He mutters, finishing eating what he has in his mouth before addressing me. "There's plenty left for Einstein. Go on and have some." He says, offering me some as he takes some more in his mouth before holding the bag out to me.

I stare at the bag for a second before letting out a sigh. "Oh fine, whatever." I give in and reach into the bag.

"ODD!"

"Ahhh!" And just like that, the loud voice from Jeremy causes us to jump in surprise. Well, I mostly just pull my arm back while Odd lets his candy go flying everywhere, on both me and the computer. Once all the pieces land we manage to regain our composure to see an irate Jeremy walk in.

"How many times have I told you not to touch my computer when I'm not here!" He stresses the last part in an annoyed tone. "Theirs months of work going on in there."

"Relax man." Odd tries to play it off. "I didn't hurt your little toy." He says and gets up off the chair, allowing Jeremy to sit down.

It's this time that I feel things in my clothes. I realize that pieces of candy went into my clothes. I groan as I work to pick them off of me as they continue to talk. "Oh no your such a cosmic creep. Now look what you've done." Jeremy annoyingly mutters as he points to the keyboard covered in candy. "Those keys are incredibly sensitive. Why didn't you stop him?" Jeremy demands of me. I barely look at him as I'm busy shaking my shirt.

"Yeah, how was I supposed to know he'd freak out the sound of your voice and spill candy all over the place. Sorry but I'm also busy picking pieces out of my clothes!" I annoyingly state as pick pieces from my shirt and ones that stuck in the waist of my pants.

"Okay okay a little piece of candy's not going to wreck your keyboard." Odd tries to calm him down as Jeremy wipes the keyboard clean of sugary debris.

"Huh?" Jeremy mutters questioningly. "That's crazy."

"What's wrong Jeremy?" I ask him as finish picking the last piece of candy off of me.

"This is really mega insane!" He completely ignores my question in favor of typing some more keys on his computer. Odd and I look at each other confused as to what's gotten into him.

When he's done, he presses enter. It's only now that I realize he started up the materialization program. _'Why? He just came back. He couldn't have found his inspiration so quickly when he went for his work. He was only gone for a few minutes.'_ I think confused as to what he's doing.

"Yes. Hahaha!" Jeremy loudly laughs in joy. Because of his sudden shift to happiness I looks closer at the computer.

"Holy…" My eyes widen in surprise as I stare at the computer screen. What happened is that something happened, and now instead of a negative failure system alert, we actually have a confirmation positive.

The program worked. We have Aelita's materialization program and is ready for her.

"You did it." I whisper to Jeremy, a joyous smile forming on my face at the revelation.

"No. Odd did it!" Jeremy's reply was not something I was expecting to hear.

"Hrmm?" Odd questions in the form of a indecipherable grunt as he shovels another handful of candy in his mouth.

"He did?" I ask confused.

"Yeah! Odd you're a genius! You know that?!" Jeremy jovially tells odd.

"Hey make up your mind. Am I a genius or a creep?" Odd asks him.

"You're a creepy genius," _'Odd combo of words but okay.'_ "You didn't do it on purpose but by dropping the candies on the keyboard, you modified and relaunched the program. I-I don't know exactly what happened but it works! Thanks Odd."

"Wait, so your telling me that when his candy fell on the keyboard pieces, they just so happened to input the right pieces we needed to complete the program?"

"Crazy I know but it did." Jeremy answers.

I look at him incredulously, then at Odd, then at the computer, before turning back to them. "… You know what, we have the program. Just gonna leave it at that and be happy we have it." I say finally.

"Who's an Einstein now?" Odd smugly says, giving himself a thumbs up. "Are you going to materialize Aelita?"

"Well, yeah, but the problem is I only get one try and that's it." Jeremy points out the obvious. "But that's because I didn't see what kind of programming the candies typed in." He says. Jeremy was standing by the door and Odd and I were kind of distracted by the flying candy all over us.

"Yeah so? Theirs's only one Aelita." Odd points out another fact with a smile.

Jeremy and I join in the smile fest at the other obvious truth. "You two go and tell the others. I'll announce the good news to Aelita." Jeremy orders us as puts on his headset.

"We're on it. Let's go Alex." Odd runs to the door.

"Right behind you Odd!" I call out and chase after the guy. _'This is so perfect! We can finally materialize Aelita be done with this whole thing by today!'_

* * *

"Mm-mm."

Okay, slight hiccup. Odd and I managed to grab Yumi and Ulrich, so now everyone is gathered around ready to do this, including Aelita on the computer screen. Only except some people aren't too keen on immediately using the program on our virtual friend just yet.

"Yumi, its now or never. We may not get a second chance." Jeremy tells her as he stands up. "What if theirs some kind of bug. I'll never be able to set up the program again." He tries to reason why we should do this now.

"Listen, you can't just materialize Aelita like that without making a lot of preparations." She replies.

"I've boosted the scan, I've got the program going, everything's ready."

"I think they mean preparations other than the program itself." I chime in to Jeremy, now seeing what it is the others are talking about in their hesitance.

"Yeah in your head." Ulrich says his piece. "Hey come back to earth Jeremy. Try to be practical for once. Aelita has no parents, and she hasn't got a birth certificate." This brings Jeremy down a little at the points he makes. "What's more she has enrolled in any schools. Okay that's no biggie, but all that together means she doesn't exist in our world."

"Imagine: "Hello, I'm Aelita. I just got here from a virtual reality." That's a one way ticket to the nut house." Yeah Odds way of explaining things were already obvious to begin with but he does have a point in the fact that we can't simply explain her sudden existence. Jeremy doesn't respond or retort, he just stays silent for a few seconds before sitting down and slumping in his chair.

"You know Jeremy, it doesn't have to be today. I can wait." Aelita says, doing what she can to offer some form of comfort to our smart friend in his downtrodden state. We have the key for her to go into our world, but we're still held up.

Jeremy lets out a small sigh of frustration. "Well, what do we do now?" He asks.

"I can put her up at my house. My folks wouldn't mind." Yumi solves the living situation right off the bat.

"And you can plug into the city hall computers and create a phony identity for her. Find her a new name, all the stuff she needs." Ulrich mentions.

"You know what," I begin to say, getting everyone's attention. "You can make her home somewhere in the states. I'm American! I can vouch for her! Plus it'd be easier for us to be able to fake Aelita's living conditions and home far off across the ocean over there than it is closer to here. Make it harder for the faculty here to confirm her credentials you know." I propose to them. Being so far away in another country, it would be easier for us to fake everything an all. "And it shouldn't be too hard to hack an enrollment document needed to get Aelita here into school if you can get through City hall." I say.

"Oh! You know what would be better? See if you can get her into classes with us. That would be so cool." Odd adds. Not a requirement exactly but would be a nice bonus for us to have in the end. Would do well for us to be nearby and help her out when it comes to things she might get confused by, most likely by social situations here and there.

Taking all our ideas in consideration, Jeremy sits there for a few seconds thinking on things. "… Okay. We'll get started first thing tomorrow."

We smile at him being on board. _'Just a little bit more time Aelita and we got you.'_

* * *

 _Running. I'm running._

 _I pant harshly, quickly as I desperately run as fast as I can. The trees pass by me as I move without stopping, moving from tree to tree as put distance between me and anything behind me._

 _I jump over a large branch sticking out of the ground but I almost lose my footing. I land on one knee for a second before I manage to push myself back up and resume sprinting. My breathing is starting to become labored from my running as my steps begin to lessen and falter. Soon I'm forced to stop and press my back to a tree, pressing my own hand to my chest as I feel my heart beating a million miles a minute desperately trying to calm my breathing._

 _Thankfully I'm able calm my heart… but only for a moment._

 _A growl can be heard, making my heavy breathing stop. It's a distance away, but I can hear the growling nonetheless. With continued desperation, I push myself off the tree and continue running. I have to get away from it. I have to move as much as I can._

 _Unfortunately no matter how much I move, I can hear the growling and pitter patter of footsteps trailing behind me. I push myself to move faster but I can't. My steps falter, while the ones behind me gain ground, and volume._

 _It's close… real close._

 _I turn around._

 _I scream as my arms come up in a vain defense as the black blur with sharp white teeth jumps towards me._

*KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*

"ALEX! Wake up!"

"Guh!" My eyes fly open awake, hyperventilating a little at the sudden awakening. As my senses return to me I somewhat notice a loud rumbling sound coming from outside, which sounds indicative of a heavy machinery.

"Alex!" As well as the loud voices coming from outside. I throw off my covers and quickly open the door as I recognize the voice being Jeremy's. No way they would wake me up at this time unless there is a good reason for it. "XANA's attacking!"

… That's a good reason.

"You serious? Great." I groan at the news. _'Should have known things weren't going to go smoothly with Aelita's materialization.'_

"Get dressed and lets go!" He quickly demands of me with Odd and Ulrich right next to him.

"Yeah yeah." I reply and quickly get to throwing my regular clothes on. Once I finally manage to I take note that the machinery noise still hasn't died off by the time we're running. "I'm going to assume the loud machine noises might be because of XANA?" I ask.

"Your guess is as good as ours!" Ulrich says before we make it outside and are running along the side of the buildings. The noise gets louder and louder until we stop just away from where the track field is and see the cause of the noise.

"No need to look any further guys." Odds begins to say. "This time he picked a real winner. He's attacking us with bulldozers." We watch as the heavy machinery goes all around, moving an tearing through all the fences, gates and even the goal posts we have. "Nice going XANA. How subtle can you get." He finishes saying sarcastically.

"Jeremy, rush over to the lab and call Yumi. Odd and I are gonna try to stop these monsters." Ulrich says the plan before turning to me. "Alex go with him. The faster we can get some backup to Aelita the faster she can deactivate the tower."

"Gotcha." I reply with a nod. Without any arguments we all run off to do our own things. Thankfully the bulldozer are heading off in a slightly different direction so we don't have to worry about them coming after us. In no time at all we manage to make it to the sewer entrance and climb down.

We grab our scooters and begin riding our way down the sewer tunnels towards the factory. "I'll call Yumi on the way!" Jeremy lets me know as he pulls out his phone and speed dials Yumi's number. We continue to ride through the sewer as Jeremy waits for Yumi to finally pick up. "C'mon Yumi! Get up we really need you!" Jeremy frantically tells her. He then proceeds to explain to her the direness of our situation and why we need fighters in Lyoko ASAP. Once he does, now we just need to focus on getting to the factory. "Yumi's on the way." He tells me as spot the ladder.

"Good. Hopefully she won't be too ticked off having to work with me again." I comment as we stop.

"Don't worry. She'll have to warm up to you eventually! She can't hate you forever." Jeremy proposes.

"… Why can't she?" I can't help but ask for some reason as he get off our rides and Jeremy grabs the ladder.

When I ask my question, he's got one foot on the ladder and is about to climb up but he freezes, seemingly stuck in thought. "I… I… I don't know." We stay in uncomfortable silence longer than either of us would have liked. Eventually Jeremy climbs up the ladder. I let out a sad sigh and follow up him. _'And so begins my hope that Yumi won't hate me for all eternity.'_

Still, we manage to make it to the factory without any problems and down to the labs, where we stop once for Jeremy to get on the computer and I to the scanners, ready to fight.

* * *

Alex lands in a crouch in the virtual world the forest sector. In an instant he pulls out his blaster pistol and immediately sweeps the area around in case of any of XANA's monsters are ready to ambush him. "We good Jeremy?" He asks the guy out loud.

" **Yeah, don't worry. Your clear for now but you should get to Aelita as soon as you can. She's to your east."**

"Got it." He nods and turn to get going.

…

At first, but then he turns around, and then around, and again a couple times as he realizes he has no idea where. "Uhhhh Jeremy? I don't have a HUD, so I don't have a compass. You got to be more specific."

" **Stop moving… She's to your left."**

"Thank you." He reply's and bolts off. Heading off in the direction, he has his eyes scanning everywhere in front of him in hopes of spotting anything hostile waiting to ambush him, as well as anything pink.

"Alex!" Speak of the devil, he manages to spot his charge hiding behind a tree as she waves to him. He holsters his blaster and slows to a stop close to her.

"Aelita, good to see you."

"Likewise."

"Anything to note?" He asks her as he looks around again.

"Nothing so far. The vibrations for the tower are getting stronger so its close by, but so far I haven't seen a single monster." Aelita warily tells him.

"That's not good." Alex comments as he pulls out his blaster rifle from his back. "We already know XANA's definitely attacking so there's no way he's going to leave it undefended for us to waltz right on in. Where do we go?"

"Over there." She points to his left.

"Alright, we'll move slow so we don't run headfirst into an ambush. Stay behind me."

"Alright." With their plan set, Aelita stays behind Alex as he jogs ahead at a steady pace. Enough for them to put some distance but not fast enough where it'll be too late for them to find cover if they run into enemies. The next few minutes are spent with them moving at an even pace. "Hold up." Alex stops cold, making Aelita stop as well as he spots movement.

" **Watch it Alex. I've got two enemies just ahead of you."**

"I see them." He replies. He then proceeds to move to a nearby rock and hunker down behind it with Aelita. As he peaks out, he spots the monsters waiting for them, more specifically two Kankrelats blocking an intersection in front of them. "Okay then, give me a second." He mutters quietly to his partner. Very carefully, he brings his rifle up and places it on the rock next to him, acting as a bipod and support for him. With a stationary support set up for him, he looks through the scope and looks for the monsters. He eventually gets them in his sights but not close enough to his liking. Reaching up, he twists a small dial on the side of the scope and increases the zoom until he's practically right up on them. The two Kankrelats are just standing there in the middle of the intersection, ready to fight and attack anyone that's comes up to them.

Good thing Alex was able to spot them first. With his sights set, his finger on the trigger he gets ready to open fire.

*… WHISTLE*

He lets out a loud sharp whistle. Just then, the Kankrelats turn in his direction.

*PCHOO*PCHOO*

In quick succession, he lets loose both blaster bolts straight at the monsters. With them not moving, it's easy for his shots to hit their mark. Both monsters are destroyed without them firing a single shot. "Gotcha." He mutters with a smile and stands up.

"Wow! That was amazing." Aelita compliments me.

"Thanks."

" **Nice shooting Alex! Odd just arrived here. Hold up for a second and I'll get you two some back up."**

"Roger." He replies as he holsters his rifle and pulls out his pistol. With his rifle out of ammo, he has no need to use it for now.

" **When he gets there you should do what you can to speed up the time to get Aelita to a tower. The bulldozers XANA possessed are heading straight for here at the factory."** Jeremy tells them the grim news.

"The factory? That's not good." Alex comments.

"If XANA destroys the computer, there'll be no way for you guys to contact me." Aelita points out. While yes we are able to talk to Aelita using Jeremy's computer, that's only because he was able to establish a connection between the super computer and his. Destroying the main one and we lose all connectivity.

"And not to mention we lose the scanners, theirs no way we can come here and back you up." He adds.

" **That's exactly what Odd and I were saying. He should be there now."** Just as Jeremy says that, they both look up and see the loading outline of Odd appear before he fully loads in and lands on the ground. When he regains his senses, he immediately aims in front and around him until his sights are set right on Alex and Aelita.

"Whoa!" Alex immediately steps in front of Aelita with his arms held up in a surrendering fashion. "Blue on blue man! Watch it." He quickly warns.

"Oh, sorry about that. Good to see you both." Odd properly greets them.

"Likewise. You seem jumpy today." Aelita playfully tells him.

"Sorry about that you two. I just never know what I'll find whenever I come here to Lyoko." Odd says.

"Well you got allies this time around. A good start." Alex says, which causes a small round of chuckles to go with their group.

"C'mon. The tower should be this way." Aelita tells them, pointing in a direction.

"Let's get going then, but carefully. We were almost ambushed by some of XANA's monsters before you got here Odd." Alex tells him as they jog in the towers direction.

"That's never good." Odd comments but follows nonetheless.

Eitherway, they continue to move at a jogging pace at first in order to keep an eye out for anymore ambushes in front of them. But because of the urgency they need to go, their movements soon turn to sprinting once Jeremy tells them what's going on in the outside, considering the bulldozers are at the factory. Their run takes them to another four way intersection area, forcing them to stop and look around.

"That way." Good news is they have pulsing indicators to show where they need to go for the activated tower, as well as the fact they have Aelita who senses these things as she points the right direction.

Unfortunately, the direction they need to go in happens to be occupied by more monsters like Alex took down earlier. "Talk about a deception." Odd comments.

"Typically roachsters move in around groups of five." Aelita informs them.

"Five? But I only saw…" Alex begins to say until he starts to hear more movement indicative of XANA's monsters. Turning around, they look from the direction they came from. "There they are." Alex grabs his pistol and aims at the single monster coming in where they came from. He starts to look worried though when more sounds can be heard and they watch as two more Kankrelats come to join the party, one from each side of them, occupying all paths now.

"Wow, and it looks like the committees at full strength."

"It is, and I don't like it." Alex comments after Odd. With hostiles in all directions, theirs no way they can properly defend Aelita from all attacks from every angle.

"Hello roachsters. Now which one of you wants to be first?" Odd taunts them as he takes aim with Alex right behind him aiming in the opposite direction and Aelita between them. To the front, one of the two, charges up and opens fire. "Look out!"

"Move!" Alex cries out as both he and Aelita move out of the way of the shot while Odd dives out of the way of the shot and lands on all fours. Another sound of a shot charging can be heard and it's the one behind getting ready to fire at them. "Behind!" Alex calls out just as the shot goes off. Aelita and he dodge it while Odd manages to jump up and dodge it but a second one nails him in the chest. Alex groans at seeing one of his friends hit but he sees the monster to the right getting ready to shoot. "Aelita!" He call out to her, quickly grabbing her and moving her. "Arhh!" He grunts as the shot meant for her nails him in the shin, forcing him to kneel.

Because both her defenders are temporarily down, the monster to their left gets the opportunity to fire, hitting Aelita in the arm. This angers Alex as he takes aim one-handed at the one that shot Aelita and fires three blaster bolts at it, making sure at least one of them destroys it. Odd takes the chance after rolling from some more blaster shots and fires a couple arrows at the two monsters in front. One misses but the other nails one of them, destroying it. The partner of the monster though fires again and this time hits Odd in the chest again, knocking him back towards the others.

" **Hey cool it you guys? Your supposed to be protecting Aelita remember?"** Jeremy reminds them.

"Hard to do when we're surrounded Jeremy!" Alex annoyingly replies back to him.

"You wanna trade places?" Odd adds as well. With one side clear, Alex pushes Aelita into the cleared pathway and motions behind a tree while he and Odd take the remaining monsters attention. They still need to move down the front path that is still blocked off by a monster. Odd tries to return fire at some of the monsters but the continued fire on them makes Odd miss as he dodges with Alex focusing on dodging rather than wasting shots unless he has an angle to shoot.

" **Odd you've used four of your ten arrows. Alex your down to seven blaster bolts on your pistol."**

"We need to move now!" Alex calls out after Jeremy informs them of their weapons status. They've been stuck in that intersection for too long and need to get moving in order to get Aelita to the tower quickly.

"Here comes three more! Laser arrow!" Odd calls out, doing flips to dodge the laser fire until he manages to fire three arrows upside down at the last monster blocking our path. "We're clear! Let's go!"

"Move!" Alex calls out and grabs Aelita, pushing her forward and ahead of both of them and the monsters. As they run with the monsters hot on their tail, Alex aims back as he sees the two following them and opens fire, sending four blaster bolts behind them. His shots ring true and takes down their pursuers. "Got 'em!" Alex grins at the takedowns but he frowns as he spots three more coming in to give chase. "Not good. Looks like the remaining three from our ambush Aelita finally caught up to us."

"That's not good." She replies.

"Just keep going. At least when we're running they'll have a harder time to hit us." Odd says.

"As long as we aren't ambushed." Alex grumbles, not looking forward to that possibility again.

"Would be better if we had some more help." Odd comments. "Hey Jeremy! We're starting to get pretty lonely out here." He talks to their friend watching them.

" **That answer your question?"** Jeremy replies to Yumi. Once she's done checking on an unconscious Ulrich she heads down to the scanners. **"Okay you guys, Yumi's on her way."**

"Good." Alex comments.

"Really? I thought you'd be annoyed at having Yumi here?" Odd asks, which Alex shakes his head.

"A fighters a fighter. Even if they aren't happy to see me." Alex grumbles. "What about Ulrich? What's holding him up?"

" **Well, let's just say he's fast asleep."**

Alex and Odd without stopping glance at each other at the news. "He is? That must be tough, I mean without his earplugs."

"Wait, Ulrich wears earplugs?" Alex asks curiously.

"Oh yeah. Didn't tell me why though."

' _I can think of some possibilities.'_ Alex thinks.

" **You guys need to take care of the monsters. Your way ahead of Yumi."** Jeremy informs them.

"I'll take care of the monsters! Stay with Aelita Alex!" Odd suggests they do.

"You got it! Good luck!" Alex doesn't argue and wishes him luck.

"Take care Odd!" Aelita does the same as the two of them continue to run towards the tower with Odd staying back to deal with the monsters.

"Keep moving Aelita. At the very least he'll buy us time." Alex says.

"Let's hope we'll have plenty of time then."

"Keep moving and we won't have to find out." They continue to run to run for a bit with Alex ahead of Aelita, keeping an eye out for anything else looking to attack them. Eventually after some turns they opt to slow a little into a jog. Alex even takes cover behind trees as they come upon intersections to avoid anymore ambushes. Already he's down to around half his life points and a fighter with another taking too long to get to them. Anymore surprises and he won't be able to properly protect Aelita.

" **Jeremy, it isn't the scanners that they need to worry about."** They both stop as they hear Odd talking outside, which means he's out. **"I just had a vision. I saw Yumi falling into the digital void."** This causes both Aelita and Alex to look at each other in surprise at this news.

" **Virtualized forever? Hey Yumi?"** Jeremy questions, not wanting to believe that news.

"C'mon, let's try and get to the tower." Alex proposes, making them resume running. "The faster we get this tower taken care of, the faster we can get out of here."

"And hopefully prevent Odds prediction from coming true." Aelita adds. In agreement they run as fast as they can to get to the tower. In short time after they eventually are able to come upon where the tower is.

"Hold up." Alex immediately stops them as they come upon a tree walkway. They can see the tower in the distance, however what give Alex pause is the fact that there are several thin platforms in front of them leading to the tower with thin tree trunks being the only connectors to them.

"Theirs the tower." Aelita says as she points to it in front of them.

"Yeah…" Alex begins to say as he stares at the vulnerable pieces of land in front of them with barely any places to maneuver. "But I don't like this. It's a kill zone over there and I'm too weak to protect you in case something happens." He move close to a tree with Aelita trailing behind him and hiding as well. "Alright, I know we need to move but we can't take the risk. Stay here and keep an eye out. I'll go on ahead and scout things out. If it's clear I'll signal you by either telling Jeremy to tell you or I'll fire once into the air." Alex explains to her as he holsters his pistol and pulls out his rifle.

"Okay. Be careful." Aelita tells him to.

"I will." He replies as he checks his rifle. He checks the side of it and stares at the ammo gauge. _'One shot… not much, but I got to make it work.'_ Slowly in a hunched state he makes his way forward until he stops in front of the tree bridge. He takes one quick look around, making sure their aren't any monsters waiting to shoot him off the thin makeshift bridge, before slowly moving forward. His hands stay tightly held on the rifle as he keeps his aim arced forward, scanning around for anymore targets. Not long he's able to make it to the other side and onto solid ground instead of bark. The ground platform he's on now is circular with a pit in the middle leading directly into the digital sea. He switches back to his pistol but before he can move forward he freezes at the hole in front of him. "Uh oh. Jeremy, is what I'm looking at what I think it is?" Alex hesitantly asks as he peers into the hole.

" **Hold on…"** Jeremy says before the typing of keys can be heard. **"Yep, that looks like it."**

" **Becareful Alex. That's the hole I saw in my vision. That's where I saw Yumi fall."**

" **Just stay away from it and you all should be fine."**

"Gonna be hard to do that." Alex comments to Jeremy lastly. What makes him say that is the giant rolling spherical mega-tank coming towards him and blocking the only pathway that leads to the tower. "I've got some big company. Aelita stay back!" He calls back to her behind him.

" **I see it. Yumi should be on her way. Just keep that thing busy until she gets there."** Suddenly the sounds of crashing and breaking can be heard on Jeremy and Odds side. **"Actually, you may want to hurry up."**

"Right." He mutters and readies his pistol by tightly gripping his weapon. Since the weak spot is the only way to kill it and its only when its about to fire, he needs to time it right when it goes to shoot him. The rolling monster lands on the platform and angles itself a little until its staring right at him. It opens up. _'Gotcha!'_ He shifts his pistol up and hip-fires straight at it in hopes of shooting its weak spot before it can shoot. Most of his shots miss but manages to aim true.

*PEEEEERRR*

At least it would have if it didn't fire. The large wall of light breaks apart his blaster bolt before it can hit and heads straight for him. "Arhhh!" Alex cries out as he tries to dodge out of the way. He wasn't fast enough though as his hand carrying his pistol gets hit, causing his hand to spark in electricity from the hit and for his pistol to be thrown clear from his hand and off the ledge. He stares dumbfounded at his sparking hand before staring at the monster as it charges up again.

"Alex!" Aelita calling out to him snaps him out of it, making him throw himself to the side and out of the way of the incoming energy blast. He rolls on the ground for a second after throwing himself before looking up and staring at the monster. It turns and prepares to attack him again.

"Not good!" Alex loudly exclaims and rolls out of the way before pushing himself up and placing himself behind a tree, followed by an energy blast hitting it. "Really not good. Jeremy, bad news. I lost my pistol and I only have one shot left in my rifle." He tells him as he pulls out his rifle, seeing the one shot still left in it.

" **Things aren't looking any better out here either! You need to get Aelita to the tower soon or the super computers not gonna last much longer!"**

"Of course." Alex annoyingly states at the situation. He peaks out and looks at the mega-tank. After catching a glimpse at it he's forced back in as it nearly hits him again. He quickly tries to formulate some form of plan to get Aelita moving without being taken out by the monster. "Aelita!" He calls out to her. "I'm going to distract this thing! As soon as that thing moves, move along the other side of the platform, okay?!"

"Alright! I'll be ready!" She calls back.

Alex breathes in and out a few times as gets himself ready. "Let this work." He hopes. He takes a step out towards the tower.

*PEEEEERRR*

And just like that he immediately pulls himself back in before the energy blast takes him out. "Now!" He cries out to himself and heads back towards the pathway back to Aelita. Only instead of going all the way back he stops and hides behind another tree. The distance he puts away from it work as the tank curls up and rolls towards him, leaving the path to the tower open. He looks and sees Aelita booking it across the walkways and onto solid ground before hiding behind a tree. Another energy blast goes off as it hits her tree. "Hey jerkwad! Over here!" Alex calls out, stepping out completely and aiming at the monster, feigning like he going to attack it. This works as the monster forgets Aelita and turns to attack him. He turns tail and makes it behind another tree right next to the entrance he and Aelita came in from as the energy wall nearly hits him just before he makes it. When it rolls up and heads closer to him, Aelita moves forward again. It works again as Alex now moves onto Aelita's side of the large hole while she is close to the entrance towards the tower. "Yes. Almost there Aelita!" He calls out to her. With the monster and them having turned around, Aelita makes a break for it.

At the same time, Alex peaks out with his rifle and aims at the monster ready to fire. It opens up, giving him the opportunity to fire.

He fires directly at the weak spot.

*Pewing*

His eyes widen as the mega-tank turns just as he fires. The blaster bolt misses and pings off the metal armor to elsewhere. The monster completely ignores him and aims at Aelita. "AELITA!" Not taking any chances, Alex runs as fast as he can towards Aelita. Hearing her name, she stops for a second and looks back.

A big mistake as she sees the monster charging up its energy blast towards her, where she can't move out of the way on the walkway she's on and no cover.

*PEEEEERRR*

It fires. Aelita tries to run as fast as she can to get away from the blast but she can't make it in time. "Nooo!" Before it can get to her, Alex jumps in front of the energy wave, his rifle held in front of him and blocks the energy from continuing forward. He does slide back for a little bit until his feet slam into a rock and he pushes all his weight into holding back the energy. "Keep going! I can't… hold it… much longer!" Alex yells out. As much as he strains to hold the attack at bay, he can already see cracks forming on rifle.

" **YUMI!"**

"Nooo!" And just like that, Alex and Aelita's savior finally arrives. Yumi runs right up behind the tank and slams right into the side of it, knocking the monster off the ledge. Alex meanwhile pushes the energy with his rifle to the left, out of the way of him and Aelita. His rifle breaks but the energy flies off harmlessly to the side, out of his and Aelita's way. Soon after, a loud sound can be heard and right in the middle of the pit a large pillar of light comes out and flies into the air.

Alex stands there staring at the pillar of light for a bit until it disappears. "… Yumi." He mutters as soon as he remembers who it was that saved him. He looks to the edge and looks on in horror. "YUMI!" Alex calls out as he sees her dangling with one hand on the ledge.

"Alex!... I can't hold on." She calls out to him. Alex's mind goes a million miles a second as watches Yumi's fingers slowly slip from the edge. He has no time to go all the way around to get her.

He takes several steps back and pulls out his Kukri. "This is so stupid!" Alex says to himself loudly before sprinting forward.

"Alex… I can't… help!" Yumi desperately tries to hold on but her fingers slowly lose more and more grip until… "Ahhhh!" She screams as she begins to fall.

*SHINK*

*Gotcha! Pah!"

Yumi's crying out at her falling stops as something stops her. When she gets her bearings from not falling anymore, she looks and her eyes widen. Alex groans from having slammed into the wall next to him, holding Yumi's hand with his left and his right holding his Kukri as it remains stabbed into the wall up to where the blade begins to curve. He lets out steady breaths of air at the exertion but smiles as he looks down at Yumi. "Well… that was waaaaay too close for comfort." He breathes out.

Yumi looks on in utter surprise at Alex being the only thing holding her up and preventing her from falling. "Wow. Th…Thanks, Alex." Yumi thanks him, finally, at the save. If she was being honest with herself, she wasn't fully expecting him save her. She tackled the Mega-tank out of the way so the beam of energy wouldn't hit Aelita. Alex was just there to stall it for them.

"No problem. As much as you hate me and you annoy me, I don't want you to be gone." He tells her with a smile.

"Yeah… right… I'm sorry." She finally says, even looking down a bit but still holding onto his hand.

"Wow, and it took us to the point of you almost falling to your death and me dangling to mine to get you to finally say your sorry."

"Aren't you going to get us out of here already?" Yumi asks, more than a little annoyed at his attitude.

"I don't know. I'm starting to think what I can do to squeeze more out of you." He sarcastically says, despite them still hanging on by only his hand.

"ALEX!" Yumi replies very angrily.

"Okay okay I was just kidding." He finishes saying and looks around for something to help. Much to his relief he sees a few tree trunks sticking out of the sides of the hole with at least close by withing arms reach. "Alright, Yumi, I'm going to swing you up onto that tree trunk. You grab it and pull yourself up, okay?"

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"You got a better idea?" He reply's back to Yumi. "I can't stay here forever and I think I feel my blade starting to slip free."

"Not really. Let's do it." She ultimately agrees.

"Okay, here we go. One…" He begins swinging Yumi back and forth. She even shifts her weight as well to help her momentum. "Two…" She begins to swing even more. "And… Three!" With a heave he swings Yumi up to the right as high as he can.

"Got it!" She manages to grab the tree trunk with one hand to hold herself up. She lets go of Alex to grab the majority of it with both hands to pull herself up.

*Crack*

"OH GOD!"

"ALEX!"

*SHINK*

In a matter of seconds, as soon as Yumi let go, the rock that Alex was holding his knife into breaks, sending him plunging to the digital sea. It's only because of his reflexes that he manages to bring his Kukri back up and slam it into the last portion of the ground of the hole. Now he stays there, dangling dangerously close to the sea with the only thing holding him up is his blade embedded into the rock with no means of him able to climb his way back up. He lets out a breath of relief and look up.

"Yumi!" Ulrich suddenly appears and looks over the ledge. "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, I am. Not falling anytime soon." Yumi says once she stands up on the log before looking down. "Alex! Are you okay?!" Yumi calls out to him.

"Yeah!" He reply's before grabbing the handle of his weapon with both hands. "I'm good for now but I don't know for how long."

" **Don't worry Alex. Aelita's making her way to the tower. She's almost there."** Jeremy frantically tells him.

"You hear that Alex! Just hang on for a little bit longer!" Ulrich calls down to him.

*Crack*

He's about to answer until his body lurches only slightly. His two handed grip on his handle falls to one hand as he stares the blade having moved barely an inch.

*Crack*

And then it moves again. Now that he's staring right at it, he very clearly sees his blade move OUT of the ground he stabbed it in.

His eyes stay completely focused on the blade, staying absolutely perfectly still.

*Crack*

It lurches again, much more this time. _'Theirs no denying it.'_ He thinks grimly. "… Well… I guess… I can't hang on anymore."

" **Just hold on Alex! Aelita just made it to the tower!"**

*Crack*

"Not really up to me Jeremy." Alex answer back in a low tone, a small sigh leaving his lips. "Hey guys? If anyone asks, especially my family, just tell them I took off. I got tired and… I wanted to go my own way."

"No! No we're almost there Alex! Just stay there! Just—"

*…CRACK*

Yumi's and Ulrich's eyes widen as his blade slips even further out. Seeing this, Alex doesn't cry or scream, doesn't beg for forgiveness or anything like that. He just… smirks. He has a small smile towards them as he pulls down his bandana and looks at his friends.

' _Friends… I have friends.'_

That one thought makes it worth it.

"It was fun guys. I'm glad I was able to help. Give XANA my regards."

*…Crack…*

He let's go.

"ALEEEEX!"

"ALEEEEX!"

Two voices, Yumi and Ulrich, scream out his name while Jeremy and Odd looks on in stunned silence. Yumi futilely reaches out her hand to grab him… but she can't. However as she stares at him, she notices something as he's falling.

He's smiling. He's smiling as he stares right at them, even as he closes his eyes one final time.

He hits the sea.

They don't even react as the pillar of light shines in front of them, or the light that comes up from behind and envelops them.

* * *

They returned from the past, they managed to stop XANA… but the mood is no less relieved or happy. Just… sadness.

"I never would have thought it was possible… for one of us to become…" Jeremy doesn't finish the sentence, letting it hang since the others already know.

"… He's… gone. He's just… gone." Ulrich mutters in a low tone before letting out a depressed sigh. "It's all my fault. If I had been faster… he wouldn't have needed to save Yumi, and he wouldn't…"

"He saved me." Yumi sadly states with a little bit of shock still. "Even after all the times I resented him, all the times I gave him the cold shoulder, I just… told him he was a mistake to be in our group… and he saved me." Yumi somberly says, a pang and tone of regret filing her voice as tears almost threaten to leave her eyes. "He sacrificed his life for me… even though I hated him." She groans as she leans down and places her head in her hands. "And now he's gone."

"He is… but there is a solution… and Jeremy knows what it is."

At this everyone's downtrodden looks crane upwards as they all look at each other.

* * *

' _Darkness… utter darkness… is this the afterlife? I'll admit, I never did get to be a religious guy, but the idea of a heavenly plain, or even a fiery depth, seems a bit more appealing than forever floating in an endless expanse of complete and utter nothingness.'_ I think. I was expecting there to at least be something in the afterlife once someone kicks the bucket.

Am I actually dead? Or am I not dead and simply an unrecognizable computer program in the supercomputer that prevents me from doing, seeing, interacting anything since I'm not a part of it? I can't even tell if my eyes are open or not.

At the same time though, I feel a bit… at peace with this. _'Is it because I'm alone? Never was one for being a people person. Is it because I'm in the computer? I always have been a gamer so being lost inside a virtual world may have its upsides… if I can find any.'_ My thoughts continue to stew as I continue to stare into the darkness. _'Seeing as theirs nothing for me to see and do, I'm beginning to think being alone like this is not its all its cracked up to be as much as I like my alone time. I like to actually do something thank you very much!... Huh?'_

Amidst my mental tirade, a notice something among the dark abyss around me. I see a light. A small light that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. _'Oh wait, was I just in purgatory? A middle ground place or something before I was sent to whatever place I was deemed to go to. Didn't think the afterlife had a wait time? Was I in que?'_ My mind goes in ramblings at the possibility as the light gets bigger and glows brighter. Before I make anymore assumptions, the brightness grows so much I can't see anymore darkness and I'm blinded.

Then, it fades to black again before my vision blurs a bit with a little bit of light. "Wha-?" I unconsciously mutter as I begin to feel again, even talk much to my surprise. The blurriness is harsh and I can't really see but soon it begins to eb away, become clearer as the seconds pass.

My ears are soon assaulted by the sound of machinery and my vision reveals a new room, and two people. Just before I collapse, I recognize them.

"Whoa! Easy there."

"We got you." Two sets of hands grab me and slow my descent to the ground. I groan as my senses return to me and I can see clearly now. I'm back in the factory, in the room with the virtualization pods. The two people next to me I manage to recognize as Odd and Ulrich. They give me smiles as I stare at the two of them.

"Odd? Ulrich? But you… but didn't I… how am I…?" I sputter my words in trying to ask what happened.

"You gonna finish any of those sentences?" Odd cheekily asks. This snaps me out of it and shake my head of the dizziness and speak coherently.

"How am I here? Didn't I fall into the digital sea? Shouldn't I be…?" I let the question hang, knowing that the others would know what I'm talking about.

They instead smile and offer their hands, allowing them to pull me to my feet.

* * *

They didn't really saying anything much to me but instead decided to take me to the control room where everyone else is.

The elevator ride up disorients me a little as we go up. It doesn't take long for us to make it to the right level and the door opens to reveal Jeremy, Yumi and Aelita on the computer screen. When the door opens up they look towards me with looks of relief on their faces seeing me. I give them a smile as I walk up to them. Yumi actually steps up and meets me halfway. We stop as she stares at me with an impassive neutral look. "Yumi I- Oof!" Before I can ask what she immediately throws herself forward and hugs me tightly. To say I'm surprised by this is an understatement as I freeze up, unsure what to do as she holds me. "Yumi?"

"Thank you." She says, her voice on the verge of breaking as she continues to hold me. "Thank you so much. You saved me. You saved me."

"I… Yeah, I did… and I'd do it again it were to happen again." I pat her back from the hug. She pulls back and wipes her eyes with a smile. We nod at each other as we walk closer to Jeremy and Aelita. "But… I do have to ask, how am I back? I thought I was gone." I ask.

"Easy: Aelita's virtualization program." Jeremy says with a smile.

"Her program? But… I thought you wouldn't be able to use it again since it was random that we found out in the first place?" I ask with general confusion. Jeremy said we only had one shot at this to bring Aelita here since it was indeed completely by accident that Jeremy had the proper codes to make the program a success.

"It was a program used to virtualize a person from the virtual world. It wasn't necessarily designed SPECIFICALLY to virtualize Aelita, she was just the only one."

"But using it on me means we won't be able to bring Aelita here and be done with XANA." I point out.

"Yes, but then you would be trapped here." Aelita says. "Your already a part of the real world. We can always find another solution to bringing me to real world. I can wait a little longer." She sincerely says, a smile never leaving her face.

I stare at her and the others stunned. _'They… they saved me. They could have been done with XANA and simply brought Aelita here finally. But instead they… used their chance to save me.'_ "Huh…" I mutter, a smile slowly forming on my face at this fact. "Wow, thank you, all of you. I… don't really know what to say just… thank you." I thank them profusely. They fact that they used their chance, especially Aelita, to save me is really starting to hit home for me.

"No problem man!" Odd enthusiastically says as he places his arm around me.

"Your one of us through and through." Ulrich does the same on the other side of me.

"Even though some of us didn't really see it till now." Yumi awkwardly states as she rubs the back of her, but she smiles nonetheless. This causes everyone to chuckle a little at that, allowing for a bit of lightheartedness to flow forth.

While I laugh as well, it slowly lessens as it turns into a frown as I begin to realize something. "So… I was… dead, was I?" I can't help but ask. Once the others are done, they look at each other confused before Jeremy begins to think.

"Well, sort of. You weren't virtualized like you always were, nor like Aelita, since you were turned into jumbled code, their wasn't anything allowing you to take form in the virtual world, nor bring you back regularly. So, in a way," He glances to the others before back at Alex, "Yeah I guess you could say you were… gone."

"…Huh… I was dead." Alex mutters quietly to himself as he slowly turns around.

"Alex?" Yumi asks concerned and confused.

"I was dead…" Alex mumbles again, stepping away from the others before going to the elevator. "I uhhhh, I think I'm going to… going to head back to my room now. I have some… stuff I need to think about." I shortly explain to them as I hit the button to head down without another words.

* * *

Once the doors close, the rest of the team all look at each other with various looks of worry and confusion.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Odd asks.

"I think so." Aelita begins to say. "I think he's just coming to terms with his brief time of being nonexistent I'd say." The others can't really come up with anything else so for the time-being they simply just hope their friend will be alright.

* * *

It's the end of the school day and the sun is beginning to set. I'm not outside seeing it though. I am standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom as I stare at myself. Throughout the day after I left factory I've kind of just been going through the motions while avoiding the others. Not that I don't hate them or anything but just… going through my own head and all. _'It would have been done. Just like that. My life, would have been cut so quickly. Just… done.'_ I sigh and rub my head as I look away from the mirror for a second before looking back up. _'What have I been doing with myself? What have I been… just… what?'_ I question myself.

For the longest time I've have some severe bouts of being anti-social. From being around people too much, dealing with people in general, so much stuff. All the time. Being with friends for the first time, actually having people I care about outside of my own family, and seeing one of them just close to falling themselves, I didn't… hesitate. I didn't want to. I took a second to evaluate my options but when I was strapped for time… I just went and I was… content to be gone if it meant saving my friend. Yet this… now that I know I could have been gone so easily… I think I need to reevaluate some things.

Slowly, I reach up and grab my glasses and take them off. When their off my eyes, I stare at myself in the mirror and grip them tightly.

* * *

"Hey have you guys seen Alex?" Odd asks after swallowing his food. It's the next day and now the group are partaking in lunch time. They haven't really seen Alex as of yet and some are starting to feel a little worry at his absence. Odd sits next to Jeremy looking towards the door with Ulrich and Yumi in front of them.

"No. Not since he left the factory yesterday." Yumi adds.

"Same. I was thinking of going to see him in his room, but then I thought maybe it was better to give him some space." Ulrich says before taking a bite of his mashed potatoes.

"Yeah he seemed a little… shook up about the whole thing." Jeremy surmises as he takes a bite as well.

"I'm sure he's fine." Odd begins to say before taking a quick sip of his drink. "He may be a bit of a shy guy but he's pretty tough. Pretty sure he'll bounce back." He hopes and takes a swig of his drink before looking up. His eyes widen as he stares at the door. "What the- Dude!"

"Ow!" In Odds surprise he tries to grab Jeremy and shake him to look at the door but he ends of knocking his glasses off his face. "What the heck Odd?" Jeremy angrily grumbles as he goes to the floor and begins blindly searching for his glasses.

Soon the rest of the cafeteria silence as people mutter in awe at the newcomer. "Whoa. We said he'd bounce back…" Ulrich begins to say as he stares at the door.

"But I didn't think this much." Yumi finishes saying.

"Oh sure no one help me." Jeremy ignores them and continues searching. As he continues to search he hears footsteps going closer to him amidst the sounds of small whispering. "Oh come on, where are they?"

"Here." A familiar voice calls out. Soon he feels his glasses thrust into his hands. He smiles as he finally has them.

"Finally. Thank you for… your… help." Jeremy begins to thank him until slowly starts to look up until he's staring right at the person who helped him standing over him.

"Glasses. They suck don't they?" Alex comments sarcastically. He then extends his hand to his genius friend. Jeremy hesitantly offers his hand, still stunned at his friends appearance. As soon as Alex takes his hand, he yanks the glasses wearing kid to his feet with ease. Once he's on his two feet, he pats him down a little to straighten his clothes before giving him a smile and stepping back. "But they can be so useful when they need to be."

Unlike the last time the others saw him, their friend Alex who they were just talking about has now undergone a whole new wardrobe transformation. Gone are the glasses, dress shirt, slacks and patted down hair, now he stands before them glasses-less in a black t-shirt with the white logo of a wolf howling to the moon, a leather jacket to go over it, dark blue jeans and his hair is now combed about parting the front towards his left. Gone is the somewhat shy, hunched forward person, now stands a more confident, straight tall standing friend of theirs.

Much of the rest of the lunch room begin to go back to their own things, the Lyoko warriors are still looking at their friend in surprise. "Alex… your… you've… your…" Yumi begins to say, stuttering and stumbling her words in disbelief.

"You've changed." Ulrich says finally with a smirk on his face.

"Thanks." Alex thanks him. "I was going for a change." He glances between his friends, even Jeremy as he finally returns to his seat. "I think I succeeded."

"What… brought this on?" Jeremy asks.

Alex lets out a small chuckle at the question as the smile remains on his face. "Well, I did some thinking since we got back. I began to realize that it was so easy for me to be… gone." He carefully chooses his words, being careful for the people around them and he doesn't reveal too much. "Knowing that, I figured it was time I stop sulking and a loner all the time and actually make an effort to socialize. Actually do what my parents for me and actually talk to people instead of making excuses." He explains.

The others looks look at him surprised before glancing at each other and smiling at their friend. "Well, you seem to be going in the right direction. Digging the new look." Odd compliments him before he gets a quizzical look. "So what? Did you get contacts instead of using your glasses?" He asks. Alex doesn't immediately answer, instead he reaches behind himself and pulls out something before tossing it onto the table. The others look curiously at the pair of glasses he's been wearing on the table. "What? You didn't answer. What about your glasses?" Odd asks as he picks them up.

"Look closer."

They look closely at the spectacles for a second in finding out what he means as Odd holds them up. They don't see it at first, except the one of them that actually wears glasses. "Hold on." Jeremy says in surprise as he takes the glasses and looks closer. Then he confirms what he's seeing by placing his fingers against the glass eye pieces. Except there are none and he runs his fingers along the inside of the rims.

"Wait, what?" Yumi asks confused.

"Their fakes." Alex finally answers, making them look at him. "They were always fake, never needed glasses to begin with." They look at him confused as to why he would be wearing fake glasses to begin with. "As I said before, I never made much effort to socialize with others, in fact I've had such problems when it comes to dealing with too many people that I've changed my appearance as much as I can to make myself seem uninteresting and out of peoples sights. Whether it had an effect or not, I didn't really care because people didn't bat an eye at me." He looks down for a second at the memory until his gaze goes back up and be speaks again with renewed conviction. "But you know what, I think I'm done hiding in the shadows. I think its time I actually get out and be just a bit more active and willing!"

"Well hello tall dark and- Wah!"

"Mmmmm!"

In the throes of Alex's declaration about how he's not going to basically be an isolated hermit anymore, Sissy comes up from behind him, beginning to talk to him from behind before he suddenly wheels around and grabs Sissy, spinning her around before doing the unthinkable: he kisses her.

Some people freeze in stunned surprise, others gape at him, and one guy lets out a strangled cry at the action. Alex kisses her for a good few seconds, dipping her a little much to her immense surprise at the suddenness. Eventually her arms goes limp and he releases her. She uncharacteristically slumps onto the table that Nicholas and Herb were on, leaving her in a frozen unmoving state.

After he's done, Alex begins backing away towards the door. "It's a new day my friends! Things are going to change if only a little. Alex strides to the lunch room doors, leaving a stunned and surprised Sissy laying on the table and a fuming herb staring daggers at him. "Ulrich, I'll be seeing you in your Pencak Silat class very soon. Have a good day!" He calls out to everyone inside, walking out with his head held high and a smile on his face.

* * *

 **Well, that was an interesting chapter to write. I was just waiting for a moment where Alex could really prove his loyalty to the Lyoko warriors and I figured saving Yumi from falling was good way to do it. At the same time, having a bit of a realization that he was wasting his life being a shut-in also played into it. You know those people who always live normal uneventful lives then suddenly something happens that makes their lives flash before their eyes and they have near death experience, resulting in them changing their whole outlook, I figured that was something I should go with for Alex.**

 **MerlockVonBaron:** Well I have update. Sorry it took so long.

 **Pokemonking0924:** Yeah he's slowly earning their trust. Eventually he will be able to. Interesting ideas for his possible vehicle or mode of transportation. Good ideas but I have something else in mind.

 **Rainsfere:** Whether he did force his way into the group is really up to what the others think and assume of him. Obviously, some of them are alright with his intervention, others not so much and will assume the worst of him and all.

He is making his way out of his shell and slowly improving himself in Lyoko as well. As time continues on he'll do better in both the real world and the virtual world of course.

That is a possibility for them to do. A test run of the return to the past function would do something to figure out why Alex was able to remember events despite having not gone through the chambers. However, since he's now gone into them they can't just simply do the function anymore since he's now in the group. They'll have to do some deeper research into the supercomputer and find out how. A curiosity for Alex to find out.

Anyway, thank you for the review and I apologize for the lateness this chapter is. I hope at some point you do like it to the point you follow and favorite it but if not, that's okay. To each their own. Just thanks for reading to this point and hope you have a good time.

 **Matt (Ch.1):** Boy. Sorry. Should have made that a bit clearer but future chapters its easy to find out.

 **Darth Monkey:** Glad you like it. Things are starting to change for him that's for sure. Don't worry I have some everything planned for the explanation as to why he can remember things before going to Lyoko. Just be patient and it will be all the worth it I can assure you.

Interesting ideas for his abilities and vehicles. Some I've thought up, some I hadn't, and some I would never have considered. But I've got those planned out and I can assure you it will be glorious for when he gets his stuff.

 **Draconos13:** Yeah since he didn't outright introduce himself and just kind of melded himself into the others group by finding the factory himself and all some were of course wary of him. Now he's started to actually gain their trust now.

I might change a few things here and there but overall I think I'll probably stick the chapters in the same order as the episodes for most of the time. Some might change but nothing too big I think I'd say.

 **Sorry folks for how long this took. My time of has been stagnant as of late, my flow of writing starting to slow in recent time, especially due to… recent events out in the world.**

 **In any case, I'm still writing, albeit slowly but surely, and I'm not here to talk about the Coranavirus. I will say, things are pretty messed up about the whole things but I'm in an area where so far the virus hasn't spread to my town yet so hopefully things will stay good for I don't know how long, hopefully for a good long while. What's also worse is how much people are also giving into the hysteria of all this panic buying. Lots of stores in my area are going out of stock pretty quick but thankfully their restocking quickly as well and their instigating ways to prevent people or deter them from bulk buying.**

 **But I'm rambling. Bottom line is, I hope everyone reading is alright, healthy and in somewhat good spirits despite the situation. Hopefully this situation will blow over quickly. Remember everyone to take care of yourselves and your fellow neighbor and friends.** **Go ahead and fave, follow, review, don't, whatever you wish, have fun reading, but most of all, have a great day everyone and good luck to everyone.**

 **Wait, one last thing.**

* * *

"Bleuughh!" Alex retches, slumped over a trashcan and heaving his breakfast into the waste bin. "Oh god. Why did I do that?!" He questions to himself just before retching up a bit more. "I… bugh… I kissed… blu… I kissed Sissy!" He shouts quietly in an exasperated tone before another heave hits him. _'What was I thinking?! I was on a role and I… and I… Oh god here comes another one!'_ His thoughts are interrupted with the onset of more sickness

"Whoa. What's going on with you?" He vaguely here's a voice, a tall gruff man that is familiar to him. Slowly he peers his head up from the bottom of the trashcan only to align his sight with the edge of the rim and catch the red piece of clothing in his peripheral next to him.

"I think… I think I ate something that didn't agree with me." He almost heaves but suppresses it a little. "That's the last time I eat something from a gas station!" He loudly proclaims with a lie before craning his head down, feeling the onset of throwing up hitting him again but not quite, on the precipice. Obviously he can't tell Jim that he's simply throwing up because he kissed someone, he shudders, so opts to lie. Bad gas station food seemed like a good cover story.

"There there. Just let it all out." Jim comforts the boy as he comes up behind him and gently pats his back. "Once your done I'll take you to the nurses office so she can give you something to help with that."

"Uhhhh… thank you Jim."

"No problem. You know this reminds me of a time from my younger days…"

"Bleeeuuuuuuggghhhh!" Alex violently retches into the trashcan as Jim recounts his younger days in the form of story without pause as Alex continues to heave. _'Oh god nooooo! Why didn't the others just leave me in the digital void?!'_ He futilely screams in his head as Jim continues to speak, unperturbed as Alex continues to throw up the last of his meals.

* * *

 **Hehe… okay, now I'm done. Take care.**


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